Since 2022, Nate Vance, the cousin of US Vice President J.D. Vance, has been fighting in Ukraine as part of the 108th Separate Mechanised Brigade “Da Vinci Wolves.” Arriving in Lviv in March 2022, he sought ways to help and soon joined the fight. During his stay at a hotel, he met a British volunteer recruiting individuals with military experience. According to Nate, anyone who had previously held a weapon was accepted, and training was minimal. A few weeks later, he was invited to join a group of Ukrainian volunteers at the front lines and agreed.
Nate previously served four years in the US Marine Corps. After briefly returning to the US, he rejoined the fight in Ukraine in June 2022, deploying to the Donbas, where heavy combat was ongoing. He remained there until January 2025, when he finally returned home.
When he heard his cousin J.D. Vance criticising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, he was furious. He had assumed J.D.’s opposition to aid for Ukraine was purely political, designed to appeal to a particular electorate. However, what he described as an “ambush” against Zelensky by Vance and former US President Donald Trump was, in his view, an act of hypocrisy.
Nate and J.D. Vance are cousins through their parents. The Vice President’s mother, Beverly, is the sister of Nate’s father, James. Nate was deeply disappointed that J.D. had never sought his insight, despite having a family member on the front lines. He criticised J.D. for dismissing Ukraine based on misleading information and expressed frustration that his cousin never tried to contact him for an accurate perspective.
He condemned the US for playing into Russia’s hands, calling Trump and Vance’s efforts to negotiate with Russian leader Vladimir Putin a strategic error. In his view, they are “Putin’s useful idiots,” failing to recognise the danger Russia poses.
J.D. Vance has become one of the most hardline figures in Trump’s negotiations with Ukraine. European officials involved in discussions on a valuable minerals agreement between Ukraine and the US noted that Vance often took a more rigid stance than Trump. There is growing concern that both Vance and Trump could disrupt the international order, playing into the hands of Russia and China. Both have downplayed Russia’s threat and suggested the US should exit NATO while pursuing territorial ambitions such as seizing Greenland.
Be First to Comment