Vice President Vance stunned a security gathering in Munich Friday by switching the subject to warning Europe that its main enemies are domestic — uncontrolled immigration and censorship by entrenched political elites — from a discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The threat I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Mr. Vance told the audience. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”

The vice president spoke the day after a 24-year-old Afghan man who had been denied asylum in Germany drove a car into a demonstration at Munich’s city center. He injured at least 39 people, including several children. With federal elections coming to Germany on February 23, conservative parties are making headway on the immigration issue.  Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, immediately hit back, denouncing the visiting American’s comments as “unacceptable.”

Later in the day, Mr. Vance and his team met President Zelensky to discuss options for peace with Russia. It was a first for Mr. Vance, who one year ago at the Munich Security Conference skipped an American congressional delegation’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader. At the time a senator, Mr. Vance told Politico that he “would not have learned anything.”

On Friday, much of the discussion was about a document that would give American mining companies preferential access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in return for security guarantees. After Operation Desert Storm in 1991 toppled the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, many American business and political leaders were resentful that some oil development contracts went to companies from countries that did not participate:  Brazil, China, Russia, and Indonesia.

President Trump has referred to the new deal proposal as “security” — or collateral — for continued American aid to Ukraine. He has said $500 billion worth of minerals are at play, including uranium, lithium, and titanium. On Wednesday, the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, delivered the minerals proposal to Mr. Zelensky at Kyiv. The two sides did not reach an agreement Friday at Munich. The Ukrainian leader posted on X that he had “a good meeting” with the Vice President and that “Our teams will continue to work on the document.” 

Congressmen who met earlier Friday with the Ukrainian president said that he found the document to be last-minute and “one-sided.” A Democratic senator, Brian Schatz, told Reuters the proposal “needs massaging.” Senator Graham said: “Let’s do the minerals agreement. Let’s have American interests here. If we sign this deal, Putin is screwed. Trump will defend the deal.”

On proposals for peace between Russia and Ukraine, delegates to the conference were still digesting Thursday’s assertions by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, that there would be no American boots on the ground to enforce an armistice and no membership for Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Confusing matters, Mr. Trump’s deputy Ukraine envoy, John Coale, said the same day that the U.S. has not ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to its pre-2014 borders. At Europe’s premiere security conference, attendees worried that Mr. Trump will cut out Europe and Ukraine and negotiate a one-on-deal with President Putin.

“A sham peace — over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans — would gain nothing,” Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned. “A sham peace would not bring lasting security, neither for the people in Ukraine nor for us in Europe or the United States.”

Senator Graham, a Republican, reassured Europeans about Ukraine: “Trump isn’t going to do what we did in Afghanistan. Ukraine won’t end poorly.” Grabbing Mr. Zelensky by the shoulder, he asked: “How do you deter Putin? You arm this guy to the teeth.” 

Prime Minister Starmer telephoned the Ukrainian leader from London and assured him that Britain is committed to Ukraine being on “an irreversible path” to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty. 

From the front Friday, a Russian-Iranian Shahed drone badly damaged the $2 billion confinement structure around the deactivated Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a senior nuclear industry official said. Completed in 2016 largely with Western money, the steel and concrete “sarcophagus” was built to contain radiation from the 1987 fire at the Soviet-era nuclear power plant, the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.

“The barrier which was supposed to prevent the spread of radioactive substances has ceased to function according to its original design,” the chief plant engineer, Oleksandr Tytarchuk, told reporters at the deactivated plant, midway between Kyiv and the Belarus border. He said the drone pierced the outer cover of the containment vessel and exploded inside. Videos showed daylight shining through a hole as fire hoses doused burning material. There were no reported injuries. Monitors indicate no radiation escaped.

“This shelter was built by Ukraine together with other countries of Europe and the world, together with America – all those committed to real security for humanity,” Mr. Zelensky posted on X. “The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia. This is a terrorist threat to the entire world.”

At Moscow, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused Mr. Zelensky of orchestrating the attack to coincide with the Munich conference, with the aim of winning more money and weapons from the West.

“There was never any doubt that Zelensky would not come to the Munich conference empty-handed,” she told reporters. “The hands of the Kyiv regime must always be busy with some children’s rattles to distract the attention of the conference participants. Zelensky travels with performances that are backed up by provocations.”

Between Thursday night and Friday morning, Russia launched 133 long-range drones against Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s military. The air force said it shot down 73 drones and 58 others did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic countermeasures. Drones damaged facilities at a port on the Danube, Izmail. Two drones crossed the river into Romania. Two more fell in Moldova.

For its part, Kyiv continued with its drone attacks deep inside Russia. Ukrainian drones hit a major steel mill in the Lipetsk region and a pumping station on a key oil pipeline to the Baltic. In two weeks, Reuters reports, Moscow is expected to impose an export ban on gasoline. Ostensibly this would be to stabilize prices for farmers at the start of the crop-sowing season. In the background, Ukrainian drones hit eight Russian refineries over the last month, cutting the nation’s refining capacity by 10 percent, Reuters calculates.