JD Vance stands accused of “erasing” British history after he appeared to mock the United Kingdom as “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 years.”
The comment came as the US vice president rejected British and French plans to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine as a “security guarantee”.
In an interview with Fox News overnight, the US vice president said the only way to secure lasting peace in the region is to grant the US an “economic upside in the future of Ukraine”.
He said: “If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give America [an] economic upside in the future of Ukraine.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron have raised the prospect of stationing military personnel in Ukraine in order to police the peace that the US administration is seeking.
Starmer has also insisted that a “US backstop” is needed to deter Russian president Vladimir Putin from sending his forces against Ukraine again.
But Vance added: “The only guy in town with a strategy is the president of the United States, and everybody needs to follow his lead.”
The UK has been involved in several military interventions since 1980, including as an ally of the United States. Hundreds of British service personnel were killed when the UK fought alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan during the early 2000s.
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Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Helen Maguire, a former Captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq, reacted scathingly to Vance’s interview.
She said: “JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I saw firsthand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.
“As the UK’s representative to the US, Peter Mandelson should call on Vance to apologise for these comments.”
Vance’s comments come as the White House seeks to pressure Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to an unconditional ceasefire with Russia. To that end, US president Donald Trump has ordered that all military aid be suspended to the war-torn Eastern European country.
A White House official said late on Monday night: “President [Trump] has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well.
“We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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