Vice President J.D. Vance’s cousin, a former volunteer fighter in Ukraine, has sounded the alarm over what he sees as a dangerous miscalculation by the administration in its approach to Russia. In a new interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Nate Vance criticized U.S. policy, arguing that Russia is taking advantage of American decision-makers.
“I know you call yourself a Republican-leaning independent,” Burnett said. “I know you’ve been supportive, at times, of the Trump administration. But on this issue of Ukraine, where you have put so much of your life over these past few years, do you think your cousin is misguided? How come?”
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Vance, drawing from his firsthand experience in Ukraine, warned that the U.S. government is failing to understand Russia’s mindset.
“Well, I think my experience in Ukraine has given me a unique perspective that most Americans don’t have,” said Vance. “There are certainly cultural differences both between the Ukrainians and Americans and the Russians. And I think if you try to deal with Russia through an American lens, it will come back to bite you. They don’t necessarily think like we think.
And I’m talking about their political class. I’ve personally witnessed them shooting their own troops on enough occasions that it wasn’t just an, you know, an isolated incident. It’s happened quite a bit, enough to the point where you could consider it to be policy if troops are retreating. So these people, as a policy, will eat their own.
So they will not hesitate to eat an American president or an American vice president. They don’t care what we think. They’re not our allies, and they never will be. Not at least for a generation.” Vance said he has attempted to share his concerns directly with his cousin but without success. He warned that pushing for a peace deal that benefits Russia could have dire consequences.
“Russia has spent the last three years kind of beefing up their military-industrial complex,” said Vance. “And if you lift those sanctions, you’re going to see a massive influx of funds into that military-industrial complex, and they’re going to build a war machine out of it, right? That’s what they’re going to do. The concept of an imperial and imperialistic, aggressive, modernized military Russia, which has learned its lessons about modern combat, is problematic for our future.
And if the Russians are given significant concessions in the ceasefire, they will spin that as a victory of sorts.” He further warned that Russia’s ambitions will not stop with a ceasefire.
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“But their view is they’re not done,” he continued. “So to them, it’s just a chance to regroup, build up and modernize, and they’ll come back. And when they do come back, they’ll be more of a problem than they are now. Right now, they’re at the weakest they will ever be. As soon as the ceasefire starts, they will immediately start to get stronger and continue to get stronger every day thereafter. So the — the way this ends is important.”
Vance’s remarks highlight an internal divide over how the U.S. should approach the ongoing war in Ukraine, as debates over sanctions and military support continue to shape foreign policy discussions in Washington.
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