Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance would not say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an “enemy,” saying smart measures need to be taken when handling the Kremlin.

“Well, I think that he’s clearly an adversary. He is a competitor. But I think that we also have to be smart about diplomacy, too,” the Ohio U.S. senator said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Just because we don’t like somebody doesn’t mean that we can’t occasionally engage in conversations with them. And I think it’s important if we’re ever going to end the war in Ukraine fundamentally at some level, we’re going to have to engage in some sort of negotiation between Ukraine, between Russia, between our NATO allies in Europe. And that’s just a necessary part,” Mr. Vance said.

“Doesn’t mean we have to like it, by the way. Doesn’t mean we condone the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But I think that sometimes you do have to engage in diplomacy even with, and maybe especially with, your adversaries,” he said.

When host Kristen Welker asked again whether he would classify Mr. Putin as an enemy, Mr. Vance said, “we’re not in a war with him.”

“I don’t want to be in a war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” he said. “ I think that we should try to pursue avenues of peace.”

Mr. Vance has said previously there should be peace between Russia and Ukraine and has spoken out against sending more aid to Ukraine.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has blasted former President Donald Trump’s vow to end the war quickly.

“They are not proposals for peace,” Ms. Harris said last month. “Instead they are proposals for surrender.”

Mr. Trump has said multiple times that if he is elected again, he will have the war over promptly, perhaps even before he’d take office. He hasn’t specified how, and both Russia and Ukraine have expressed puzzlement about what he means.