"Our interest is in peace. But part of that is motivated by my view that Ukraine is not nearly as important to us as other regions of the world, right? Just putting my cards on the table," Republican Senator and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said.
Cynical as it is, that’s what makes them “vital”.
Trump and Vance are obviously monstrous pieces of shit, and helping Ukraine is pretty objectively correct both morally and strategically, but losing Taiwan, specifically TSMC would do a pretty incredible amount of damage, while losing Ukraine would empower Russia, but otherwise do fairly limited damage to US interests.