"We are Vladimir Putin's useful idiots". This harsh attack on the administration of US President Donald Trump was made unexpectedly by a family member of Vice President J.D. Vance, note ANSA, "The Guardian" and "Figaro".
We are talking about Nate Vance, who is J.D. Vance's cousin and who says he fought on the front lines in Ukraine against Vladimir Putin's Russian forces. He spoke to the French publication "Figaro", and the article with the conversation with him was published in the paid version of the French newspaper, in both French and English.
In front of the French publication, Nate condemned the treatment shown to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during his recent visit to the Oval Office of the White House.
Nate Vance, 47, is a native of Texas. He says that he was in Ukraine for three years, two and a half of which he spent on the front line, in the mud of the trenches, with the battalion "Da Vinci Wolves". He participated in battles in Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Pokrovsk and returned to the United States in early January, shortly before the inauguration of the new American administration.
On February 28, he saw his cousin J.D. Vance arguing with Zelensky in the Oval Office and was angry at the scene that unfolded.
"J.D. is a good guy, he's intelligent. When he criticized the aid to Ukraine, I thought he was doing it to please a certain electorate, that it was a political game. But what they (Vance and Trump) did to Zelensky was an absolute unscrupulous ambush," says Nate Vance.
Nate and D.J. Vance have the same grandparents. Beverly, J.D. Vance's mother, is the sister of James, Nate Vance's father. The two of them once vacationed together.
But being in his family doesn't mean I'm going to stand by and watch him let my comrades get killed, Nate says, referring to his cousin. By comrades, he means the Ukrainian military he fought alongside.
Nate Vance says the United States has also benefited from its support for Ukraine. He says he's disappointed in his cousin and the way he's handled Zelensky. He adds that he could have told J.D. Vance the truth about Ukraine, but J.D. never reached out to him to learn more about it.
Nate adds that he's tried to get in touch with J.D. several times. "It's not easy to get in touch with a U.S. senator from Ukraine, but I left messages in his office. "He never called me," says Nate.
He shares that after Trump and Vance won the US elections, he decided to return home from Ukraine because staying there was difficult. He couldn't afford the risk of being captured there, says Nate, adding that he is now looking for a publisher to publish his memoirs from the battlefield in Ukraine. Since returning to the US, Nate has been touring the roads of the American West in his camper.
Nate describes himself as a Republican. However, he fails to understand the new course the US is taking under Trump. "Trump and my cousin seem to believe that they can get close to Putin. They are wrong. The Russians have not forgotten our support for Ukraine. We are Vladimir Putin's useful idiots," says Nate.