By the way, a cousin of JD Vance has fought in Ukraine and is highly critical of the Trump administration's behavior.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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VorZakone
What would Kenny G do?
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Russia carried out a daring operation recently with soldiers moving through a gas pipeline to try to surprise the Ukrainians.
Ukraine said they saw it coming and set an ambush, inflicting dozens of casualties. Photos & videos of the Russians in the pipeline are circulating on social media.
Ukraine said they saw it coming and set an ambush, inflicting dozens of casualties. Photos & videos of the Russians in the pipeline are circulating on social media.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-kursk-pipeline-f50051404ca607d9cadd8bc9697aa50cRussian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers reported, as Moscow claimed fresh gains in its push to recapture parts of the border province that Kyiv seized in a shock offensive.
Blackwidow
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By the way, a cousin of JD Vance has fought in Ukraine and is highly critical of the Trump administration's behavior.
Found a translation on Reddit:
"We are Vladimir Putin's useful idiots": Nate, first cousin of JD Vance and volunteer fighter in Ukraine
EXCLUSIVE - The Texan spent three years in Ukraine, two and a half of them fighting on the bloodiest fronts. He despairs of the position of his cousin and Donald Trump.When Nate heard his cousin JD Vance attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, he went into a rage. In his camper van, lost on the roads of the American West that he has been criss-crossing since his return from Ukraine in January 2025, Nate was disappointed. Disappointed in this cousin, a few years his junior - Nate is 47 - whose integrity he has never stopped defending. "JD is a good, intelligent guy, he explains. When he criticised aid to Ukraine, I thought it was because he had to please a certain electorate, that that was the game of politics. But what they did to Zelensky (with Donald Trump, editor's note) was an ambush of absolute bad faith", he fulminates.
Nate and JD share grandparents: JD's mother Beverly is the sister of Nate's father James. The pair have spent holidays together, either in Middletown with JD's family or in California, where Nate's family briefly lived. JD Vance's career took off in 2016 when he published Hillbilly Elegy, which recounts his chaotic childhood as a ‘white kid’ from Appalachia. In 2023, he was elected Senator for Ohio. The following year, in 2024, he became the 50th Vice-President of the United States alongside Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Nate chose to embark for Ukraine and its muddy trenches, to fight the Russians.
"Just because I'm related to you doesn't mean I'm going to stand by and watch you get my comrades killed", Nate Vance raged. With method, the soldier responds to his cousin's argument, underlining the benefits that the United States has derived from its involvement in the war, the good use of American equipment on the front... "I was disappointed. When JD justified his mistrust of Zelensky by the ‘reports’ he had seen, I thought I would choke, he says indignantly. His own cousin was on the front line. I could have told him the truth, without pretence, without self-interest. He never tried to find out more", he sighs. Yet Nate made several attempts to contact his cousin. "It's not easy to contact a senator from Ukraine, he admits. But I've left messages at his office. I've never heard back", the soldier laments.
Blackwidow
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Nate Vance's service record tells the story of the conflict. The Texan took part in some of the deadliest battles of the war: Kupiansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Pokrovsk... In the few photos that retrace his three years in Ukraine, Nate displays the discreet confidence of a professional soldier. The colossus with the grey beard covering his cheeks blends in with his Ukrainian comrades. However, he decided to hang up his arms at the beginning of January, just a few days before his cousin was sworn in as Vice-President. Until then, Nate had always been discreet about his relationship with Donald Trump's running mate. "It had become complicated to stay. I couldn't risk being captured", he says simply.
Nothing really predisposed Nate Vance to join a battalion of Ukrainian volunteers to fight the Russian army. Nate did spend four years in the army, in the Marines, but that was twenty years ago, between the ages of 18 and 22. From 2001 to 2022, he led the quiet life of an average American in San Antonio, Texas. For years, he patiently worked his way up the ranks of an oil company. His social media profile shows a man of strong Republican convictions, who enjoys hunting and sport shooting.
When war broke out in 2022, Nate quickly realised that this conflict was different from all the others. "I wanted to go and see. Out of curiosity. And for the adventure too. It's not easy to admit, but it's the truth", he confides. In March 2022, three weeks after the start of the invasion, Nate went to Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, which in the first months of the war had become the nerve centre of international humanitarian aid. "I wanted to help in one way or another, with logistics or medical support. I could see that history was being written in front of me, and I wanted to be part of it", he continues.
One morning, at the corner of a hotel, the former Marine met a British volunteer who was looking for foreigners with military experience. At the time, the Ukrainian army was taking on thousands of new fighters every week, who had to be trained before being sent to the front. "They were looking for anyone who had ever held a gun. It was very basic training", Nate remembers. Under his authority, workers, barmen, teachers... all passed through for just one week. "Many of them were so young. Almost children. It was terrifying", remembers the former soldier. So when a group of highly motivated young volunteers offered to accompany him to the front, Nate accepted. He returned to the United States for a few weeks, returning in June 2022. This time, he headed for Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting was raging.
Nothing really predisposed Nate Vance to join a battalion of Ukrainian volunteers to fight the Russian army. Nate did spend four years in the army, in the Marines, but that was twenty years ago, between the ages of 18 and 22. From 2001 to 2022, he led the quiet life of an average American in San Antonio, Texas. For years, he patiently worked his way up the ranks of an oil company. His social media profile shows a man of strong Republican convictions, who enjoys hunting and sport shooting.
When war broke out in 2022, Nate quickly realised that this conflict was different from all the others. "I wanted to go and see. Out of curiosity. And for the adventure too. It's not easy to admit, but it's the truth", he confides. In March 2022, three weeks after the start of the invasion, Nate went to Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, which in the first months of the war had become the nerve centre of international humanitarian aid. "I wanted to help in one way or another, with logistics or medical support. I could see that history was being written in front of me, and I wanted to be part of it", he continues.
One morning, at the corner of a hotel, the former Marine met a British volunteer who was looking for foreigners with military experience. At the time, the Ukrainian army was taking on thousands of new fighters every week, who had to be trained before being sent to the front. "They were looking for anyone who had ever held a gun. It was very basic training", Nate remembers. Under his authority, workers, barmen, teachers... all passed through for just one week. "Many of them were so young. Almost children. It was terrifying", remembers the former soldier. So when a group of highly motivated young volunteers offered to accompany him to the front, Nate accepted. He returned to the United States for a few weeks, returning in June 2022. This time, he headed for Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting was raging.
Blackwidow
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Trench war
"He was much older than us. Even much older than the other foreign volunteers", recalls Dima, who fought with him in the battalion, nicknamed the “Da Vinci Wolves” after the unit's founder. "On the first day, we went to the firing range. He took a simple Kalashnikov with no sights and set up at 800 metres from the target. Everyone laughed at him. When he hit the metal target five times in a row, the laughter died down", he laughs. In the evenings, the unit's officers get together to plan future operations. "A lieutenant was listing our equipment needs. The commander interrupted him: ‘All I need is Nate and his Kalashnikov’. That's how Nate joined the group", adds another of his comrades.
Nate joined Honor, a group of Ukrainian nationalists, already on the front line in 2014 during the Maidan revolution. "Some of them were just children. But they had a rage, a strength", he confides. Over the weeks, Nate learned to navigate his new comrades, who had all volunteered to join the front line. "There were lawyers, teachers, engineers... They gave up everything to defend their country", he says.
Despite the language barrier, Nate is helping to professionalise this volunteer unit, which has not yet been formally integrated into the regular army. "It was more of a militia than a unit. A group of citizens who organise and equip themselves to defend their country, describes the Texan. And the real difference between a militia and a professional unit is effective communication. So that's what we've been working on", he adds. Few of the soldiers in the unit speak English, and things got off to a rocky start until he met ‘Alf’, a body-built nuclear engineer with a family who spoke fluent English. "He became my Ukrainian chaperone", he jokes.
Faced with incomprehension
For two and a half years, Nate lives with the siblings he has chosen for himself. His unit evolved. From a volunteer regiment assigned to support missions, the Da Vinci Wolves were given increasingly demanding assignments. "We are now an assault unit. Our job is to attack positions or defend them", explains Serhii Filimonov, the battalion's current commander. "I have to admit, it wasn't the same as my missions with the Marines in Europe", laughs Nate. The veteran modestly recounts the trenches and the death, the mud and the blood. The comrades who fall, the enemies he kills. "There's no denying it. But there's not much to say. You compartmentalise your mind. You don't think about it", he says simply.
"Nate is an excellent fighter with remarkable composure", recalls Serhii Filimonov, the battalion's current commander. In his command centre near Pokrovsk, where his unit holds the southern flank of the city, the imposing young man, aged 30, tries to count the times he thought he would die alongside Nate Vance. "Fifteen times we should have died. Fifteen times we got away with it", he smiles. Serhii recalls the trench in the Bakhmut region in 2023, where the two men found themselves trapped for hours on end under the methodical shelling of Russian artillery. "This time, we said goodbye", he recalls.
Retired from the battlefield, Nate is now looking for a publisher to publish his war memoirs. "I hope to continue defending Ukraine in a different way, because it needs it", he says modestly. A lifelong Republican, he is now facing incomprehension from people with whom he has always agreed. Even within his own family. On Facebook, his mother, Donna, adopted JD Vance's vehemence towards Volodymyr Zelenky, going so far as to call him a ‘pretentious little shit’. From the arid roads of the American West that he now criss-crosses, Nate despairs of the latest developments in the conflict and the American U-turn. "Donald Trump and my cousin obviously think they can win over Vladimir Putin. They're wrong. The Russians are not about to forget our support for Ukraine. We are Vladimir Putin's useful idiots", he laments.
"He was much older than us. Even much older than the other foreign volunteers", recalls Dima, who fought with him in the battalion, nicknamed the “Da Vinci Wolves” after the unit's founder. "On the first day, we went to the firing range. He took a simple Kalashnikov with no sights and set up at 800 metres from the target. Everyone laughed at him. When he hit the metal target five times in a row, the laughter died down", he laughs. In the evenings, the unit's officers get together to plan future operations. "A lieutenant was listing our equipment needs. The commander interrupted him: ‘All I need is Nate and his Kalashnikov’. That's how Nate joined the group", adds another of his comrades.
Nate joined Honor, a group of Ukrainian nationalists, already on the front line in 2014 during the Maidan revolution. "Some of them were just children. But they had a rage, a strength", he confides. Over the weeks, Nate learned to navigate his new comrades, who had all volunteered to join the front line. "There were lawyers, teachers, engineers... They gave up everything to defend their country", he says.
Despite the language barrier, Nate is helping to professionalise this volunteer unit, which has not yet been formally integrated into the regular army. "It was more of a militia than a unit. A group of citizens who organise and equip themselves to defend their country, describes the Texan. And the real difference between a militia and a professional unit is effective communication. So that's what we've been working on", he adds. Few of the soldiers in the unit speak English, and things got off to a rocky start until he met ‘Alf’, a body-built nuclear engineer with a family who spoke fluent English. "He became my Ukrainian chaperone", he jokes.
Faced with incomprehension
For two and a half years, Nate lives with the siblings he has chosen for himself. His unit evolved. From a volunteer regiment assigned to support missions, the Da Vinci Wolves were given increasingly demanding assignments. "We are now an assault unit. Our job is to attack positions or defend them", explains Serhii Filimonov, the battalion's current commander. "I have to admit, it wasn't the same as my missions with the Marines in Europe", laughs Nate. The veteran modestly recounts the trenches and the death, the mud and the blood. The comrades who fall, the enemies he kills. "There's no denying it. But there's not much to say. You compartmentalise your mind. You don't think about it", he says simply.
"Nate is an excellent fighter with remarkable composure", recalls Serhii Filimonov, the battalion's current commander. In his command centre near Pokrovsk, where his unit holds the southern flank of the city, the imposing young man, aged 30, tries to count the times he thought he would die alongside Nate Vance. "Fifteen times we should have died. Fifteen times we got away with it", he smiles. Serhii recalls the trench in the Bakhmut region in 2023, where the two men found themselves trapped for hours on end under the methodical shelling of Russian artillery. "This time, we said goodbye", he recalls.
Retired from the battlefield, Nate is now looking for a publisher to publish his war memoirs. "I hope to continue defending Ukraine in a different way, because it needs it", he says modestly. A lifelong Republican, he is now facing incomprehension from people with whom he has always agreed. Even within his own family. On Facebook, his mother, Donna, adopted JD Vance's vehemence towards Volodymyr Zelenky, going so far as to call him a ‘pretentious little shit’. From the arid roads of the American West that he now criss-crosses, Nate despairs of the latest developments in the conflict and the American U-turn. "Donald Trump and my cousin obviously think they can win over Vladimir Putin. They're wrong. The Russians are not about to forget our support for Ukraine. We are Vladimir Putin's useful idiots", he laments.
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