US Vice President JD Vance has faced condemnation on social media for comments he made regarding the support needed by Ukraine.
The war of words between Ukraine and America continues, and Vice President JD Vance has found himself embroiled in a new controversy.
Vance was accused of disrespecting France and/or the UK for his comments and now faces a heated backlash.
While speaking on Fox News on March 4, Vance said: âThe president knows that if you want real US security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine.
âThat is a way better security guarantee from some random country that hasnât fought a war in 30 or 40 years.â
Tensions between the US and Ukraine remain high despite calls for peace (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
At this point, the UK and France are the only two countries that have pledged troops to a potential peacekeeping force.
As you can imagine, the vice president is now facing condemnation from British veterans as well as people who have taken issue with his comments.
One Twitter user commented: âJD Vanceâs claim that the UK hasnât fought a war in 30-40 years insults the 600+ British troops who died in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside Americans.
âDisrespectful to their sacrifice and our alliance, time for an apology, not ignorance.â
Another highlighted NATO nations contributions to America over the years and said: âVP Vance forgot that between 2001 and 2021, hundreds of soldiers from countries the U.S. came to help after 9/11 have died in Afghanistan.
â457 from the U.K., 89 from France, 25 from the Netherlands. It is truly sickening to see how these sacrifices have already been forgotten.â
Vance has since insisted he wasnât talking about the UK or France (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A third added: âTo denigrate France and UK as some ârandom countryâ is an outrageous insult to allies with a great history of nations which supported the U.S. in the Iraq wars and wars after 9/11. An insult that demands an apology.â
However, Vance has since dismissed the notion that he was speaking about British or French troops in his own post on the social media platform.
He said: âThis is absurdly dishonest.
âI donât even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.â
He added: âBut letâs be direct: there are many countries who are volunteering (privately or publicly) support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful.â