Editor’s be aware: In accordance with the safety protocols of the Ukrainian navy, troopers featured on this story are recognized by first names and callsigns solely.
American volunteer troopers preventing in Ukraine say that they really feel “betrayed” by their very own nation after the U.S. halted navy help and stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv in early March.
“(U.S. President Donald Trump) betrayed each one among us,” a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who goes by the callsign Goldfish, informed the Kyiv Unbiased.
A number of days after the heated Oval Workplace conflict throughout President Volodymyr Zelensky’s go to to Washington on Feb. 28, Trump froze the supply of all U.S. navy help to Ukraine, price billions, in a transfer to push Kyiv into peace talks with Russia. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed on March 5 that the U.S. has additionally halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine, which might have an effect on Ukraine’s potential to determine Russian targets, in addition to to defend itself from missile strikes.
The American troopers who spoke to the Kyiv Unbiased mentioned they have been “horrified” by their nation’s latest choices and the following penalties on the bottom in Ukraine.
With lots of them preventing in Ukraine since 2022, they are saying watching their nation take a serious U-turn in Ukraine coverage and soften towards Russia has been hurtful and deeply offensive, particularly after shedding comrades one after one other to the warfare, together with many Individuals.
“By no means have I ever thought that I’d be listening to any U.S. public determine — not to mention the president — overtly declare help for an aggressor,” Goldfish, a 33-year-old Alaskan presently serving with the twenty fifth Airborne Brigade, mentioned.
“If we stand right here now on the facet of the oppressor, actually telling Ukraine, both submit or stop to exist, that's not peace – that’s subjugation.”
Whereas the precise variety of U.S. volunteer troopers preventing in varied items in Ukraine is unknown to the general public, not less than 50, together with about 40 U.S. navy veterans, have been killed in motion as of February 2024, in keeping with the American protection on-line publication Activity & Objective. A 2025 CNN investigation revealed that greater than 20 are lacking in motion on the entrance line.
Understanding the importance of U.S. navy help and the immense sacrifice that Ukraine has already made to defend its nation, some American fighters hoped that Trump wouldn’t abandon Ukraine like that, soldier Levi Perez, 36, mentioned.
“Deep down in our very souls, we knew it was coming,” Perez, an Alaskan who goes by his callsign Joker, informed the Kyiv Unbiased.
"Our popularity for the foreseeable future is just about gone,” he mentioned, noting that different Western nations are shedding belief within the U.S. and should flip away from additional political and financial ties.
Perez and some different American troopers in Ukraine are satisfied that Trump and his crew’s hasty strikes are making the opportunity of World Battle III inevitable, particularly with China doubtless eyeing the second to invade one other sovereign nation.
“We’re past the purpose of management (the place we will keep away from World Battle III) as a result of Russia is just not going to retreat fully, they gained't give again the stolen territory, and Ukraine gained't allow them to hold the territory,” Perez mentioned, referring to the roughly 20% of the Ukrainian land that Russia occupies.
The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post
A surge within the Ukrainian troop losses is predicted with the U.S. navy help freeze and the intelligence sharing halt, the American troopers say.
A former police officer from a southern metropolis within the U.S. presently serving within the Ukrainian navy says that he’s most fearful in regards to the bans’ potential value particularly on the civilian lives.
“The civilians are going to undergo exponentially, virtually extra, as a result of now with the dearth of intelligence, we don't have as a lot details about rocket and drone strikes coming from Russian territory,” the police officer-turned-soldier, who spoke on the situation of anonymity resulting from his unit’s protocols, informed the Kyiv Unbiased.
“I accepted the truth that I simply might not have a rustic to return to as a result of I’m not going to return and dwell beneath a fascist regime.”
Probably the most terrifying half is seeing how the U.S.’ subsequent steps will affect Ukraine and its folks, as a result of “Ukrainian persons are unbelievable,” in keeping with a fellow American soldier, who goes by the callsign Gimli.
“The nightmare that retains me up essentially the most is whether or not my nation will ever recuperate,” Gimli, a 33-year-old former U.S. military serviceman from Washington, informed the Kyiv Unbiased. “Or if Trump and the Kremlin have fully crippled the way forward for my nation.”
Gimli and different American troopers mentioned they’d a very completely different imaginative and prescient of their nation — a democratic nation they believed had at all times tried to do the correct factor regardless of setbacks and to assist the world as “defenders of freedom.” Now, they are saying they really feel humiliated.
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“I accepted the truth that I simply might not have a rustic to return to as a result of I’m not going to return and dwell beneath a fascist regime,” he mentioned, including that he hopes that “the Ukrainians can forgive my folks sometime.”
The American troopers interviewed mentioned their hopes have been now hanging on Europe to step up its help for Ukraine in what may very well be its darkest months to come back.
Goldfish, who obtained a close to deadly harm in embattled Donetsk Oblast in the summertime of 2023, mentioned that “Europe is the sleeping tiger on this warfare.”
“I at all times thought it will be Russia that might simply poke too far in the direction of Europe or make too many threats. However it wasn't,” Goldfish mentioned.
“It was America that poked the tiger and woke it up.”