Nate Vance, the cousin of U.S. Vice President JD Vance and a volunteer fighting on Ukraine's front lines, said he is "disappointed" in his relative's stance on Ukraine.
Vance, a former U.S. Marine, defended Ukraine from 2022 to January 2025 as a member of the Da Vinci Wolves First Motorized Battalion, a volunteer unit.
"Being your family doesn't mean I'm going to accept you killing my comrades," Vance said in an interview with Le Figaro published on March 9.
Vance's remarks come at a low point in U.S.-Ukrainian relations, as Washington has halted intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv. The freeze followed a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President Vance, and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Nate Vance said he was disappointed in how his cousin treated Zelensky during the meeting.
"When (JD Vance) criticized aid to Ukraine, I thought it was because he needed to appeal to his electorate, that it was part of the political game," Vance said.
"But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute dishonesty."
The vice president's continued distrust of Zelensky is unjustified, as are his views on Ukraine, Vance said.
"I thought I was going to choke ... His own cousin was on the front lines. I could have told him the truth, without pretense, without personal interest. He never tried to find out more."
Vance said he tried to get in touch with his cousin several times with no success.
"I left messages at his office. I never heard from him," he said.
Vance volunteered to fight in Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, but left shortly before the U.S. presidential inauguration out of fear of being captured by the Russian army.
"It had become complicated to stay. I couldn't take the risk of being captured," he said.
JD Vance has criticized Ukraine and Zelensky in the past, at times repeating Kremlin talking points. Protestors confronted the vice president for his treatment of Zelensky on several occasions following the Feb. 28 meeting.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
