JD’s cousin fought on the Ukrainian frontline for 2.5+ years. To say he’s dismayed with Trump and JD’s rhetoric and treatment of Ukraine is probably an understatement. When Nate heard his cousin JD Vance attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, he went into a black rage. In his motorhome, lost on the roads of the American West that he has been traveling since his return from Ukraine in January 2025, Nate was disappointed. Disappointed with this cousin, a few years younger than him - Nate is 47 years old - whose integrity he has never stopped defending. "JD is a good, intelligent guy," he explains. When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that it was because it had to please a certain electorate, that it 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 rants. … Trenches war "He was much older than us. Much older than other foreign volunteers, "recalls Dima, who fought with him in the battalion, nicknamed the "Da Vinci Wolves", after the founder of the unit. "The first day, we went to the shooting range. He took a simple Kalashnikov, without a sight, and settled 800 meters from the target. Everyone made fun of him. When he hit the metal target five times in a row, the laughter fell silent," he laughs. In the evening, the unit's officers meet to plan future operations. "A lieutenant listed our material needs. The commander interrupted him: "I only need 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 were just kids. But they had a rage, a strength, "he confides. Over the weeks, Nate learns to navigate between these new comrades, who have all volunteered to join the front. "There were lawyers, teachers, engineers... They left everything to defend their homeland," he says. Despite the language barrier, Nate contributes to the professionalization of this volunteer unit, not even formally integrated into the regular army. "It was more of a militia than a unit. A group of citizens who organize and equip themselves to defend their country, "describes the Texan. "And the real difference between a militia and a professional unit is the effectiveness of communication. So that's what we worked on," he adds. In the unit, few soldiers speak English, and the beginnings are difficult, until he meets "Alf", a bodybuilder nuclear engineer, a family man, fluent in English. "He became my Ukrainian chaperone," he jokes. https://archive.is/2025.03.09-20200...-et-combattant-volontaire-en-ukraine-20250309 (used my browser to translate)
Nobody has started a new thread on this topic lately. Thank you for bringing it to our attention again.
