Veterans fighting for Ukraine’s foreign legion label president a ‘coward’ who won’t stand up to Putin.
US military volunteers fighting alongside Ukraine’s armed forces have branded President Donald Trump a “jackass” over his peace talks with Vladimir Putin, saying Ukraine’s future was not a “business deal”.
Hundreds of former US troops have fought on Kyiv’s side in the conflict over the last three years, following Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s creation of the International Legion at the start of the war.
Most have reacted furiously to the news last week of Mr Trump’s private phone call to Putin, in which he apparently ruled out Nato membership for Kyiv and conceded that Moscow could keep Ukrainian territory it has currently occupied.
“F— Trump and his sh—y supposed peace deal,” said Ryan O’Leary, an Iraq war veteran who leads Chosen Company, one of the largest foreign volunteer units in Ukraine.
“Any peace deal is ultimately up to Ukrainians alone, who should be included directly in talks. Neither Trump nor his administration should have any say in how the war ends. Only the soldiers and the Ukrainian people should have that say, not some jackass and his jackass cabinet members sitting behind their white picket-fenced houses on a golf course.”
Ex-US soldiers are believed to make up the largest national contingent of Western military volunteers in Ukraine, at least 50 dying in combat and many more coming home seriously injured.
They regard Mr Trump’s concessions as squandering both their own military sacrifices and those of their Ukrainian comrades – a sentiment reflected in their distinctly undiplomatic language.
“Trump is a coward, sucking Putin’s d—,” said Charles Carter, another US volunteer, who previously served with America’s 101st Airborne Division.
He said he regretted that Mr Trump had not been shot dead by the assassin whose bullet nicked his ear during a campaign appearance last July.
“The fact that the bullet missed his f—ing face by only an inch is a worldwide travesty.”
The anger voiced by US volunteers reflects the wider split that the Ukraine war has caused within America’s military community, which traditionally leans Republican. Some have taken a hawkish attitude, regarding Putin’s aggression as a fundamental threat to global democratic values.
Others, including Mr Trump’s Vice-President JD Vance, a former US Marine, take an isolationist approach, regarding Ukraine as the kind of messy foreign war that America should no longer get embroiled in.
While neither the Biden nor the Trump administration has sanctioned US citizens going to fight in Ukraine, volunteers who have done so have often been vocal advocates for US support for Kyiv, appearing on TV shows and addressing US politicians in Washington DC.
Early last year Mr O’Leary, a former Iowa National Guardsman, visited Washington to implore pro-Trump Republican lawmakers to stop stalling a bill for a Biden administration weapons package for Ukraine.
Among the keenest US advocates for Kyiv’s cause is Alex Drueke, an Iraq veteran from Alabama, who was captured by Russian forces during his first mission as a volunteer in Ukraine in June 2022.
He spent nearly four months in captivity, during which time he was beaten repeatedly, subjected to torture by electric shock, and told he would be executed as a mercenary.
Since his release as part of a prisoner swap deal, he has given speeches to schools, community groups and policy forums, trying to convince Americans not to withdraw support for Kyiv.
Mr Drueke told The Telegraph that he was planning a series of public speeches marking the war’s third anniversary next Monday, in which he would take issue with Mr Trump’s actions.
“The world needs to be reminded that 50 per cent of us did not vote for this horrible man, who is not only destroying his country from within, but the world outside too,” he said.
“I fear he will demand a lot of concessions from Ukraine while demanding none from Russia, and there will be no security guarantees to stop Putin re-arming and invading again.”
He added: “My advice to Ukraine is to fight to the last woman and child, as Putin is going to wipe Ukraine off the map anyway. I say that, even if I have to go back and fight myself.” [The Telegraph, ‘F… Trump and his deal‘]
