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US vice-president JD Vance has provoked outrage in Britain after belittling a UK-France plan for European peacekeepers to guarantee peace in Ukraine, saying a deal was unlikely to be secured by “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
British military veterans who served alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan were dismayed by his comments, with some politicians at Westminster demanding an apology.
JD Vance told Fox News on Monday: “The president knows that 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 Americans 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. The security guarantee and also the economic guarantee for Ukraine is to rebuild the country and ensure that America has a long term interest.”
The vice-president did not specify which country he was referring to but made his comments after Fox News host Sean Hannity raised the proposed US-Ukraine minerals deal and “European peacekeepers”, a plan for troops on the ground spearheaded by the UK and France.
Hope is not a strategy to bring peace to Ukraine.
The only person in town who seems to have a strategy is President Donald J. Trump. pic.twitter.com/Tuitz2ZJ8R
— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 4, 2025
More than 600 British service people died fighting alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last 25 years. France suffered about 90 losses in Afghanistan and, with Britain, later joined a US-led coalition against Isis.
Johnny Mercer, former UK Conservative armed forces minister who served in Afghanistan, said: “Vance needs to wind his neck in.” He added: “Show a bit of respect and stop making yourself look so unpleasant.”
James Heappey, another former Conservative defence minister and army veteran, said: “Serving with the US and France were defining moments of my military career.” He added on X: “Sad to hear the relationship reduced to this.”
Downing Street and the Elysée palace did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Vance’s assertion that a US mineral deal with Ukraine was “a way better security guarantee” than European forces on the ground has been called into question by Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister.
“The mineral deal is not enough on its own,” Starmer told MPs on Monday. The UK prime minister told MPs he did not expect the US to suspend aid to Ukraine, a policy announced by Donald Trump hours later.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have argued that a US military “backstop” for a European force in Ukraine, deployed to guarantee the peace, is essential to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine.
They have said that the US-Ukraine mineral deal, which they are urging Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign, would be part of any security guarantee.
Vance posted a clip of his comments on his account on X, saying: “Hope is not a strategy to bring peace to Ukraine. The only person in town who seems to have a strategy is President Donald J. Trump.”
Helen Maguire, a spokesperson for the UK’s opposition Liberal Democrats and a former captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq, said the US vice-president should apologise for his comments.
“JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said.
“I saw first-hand 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.”
She called on Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s ambassador to Washington, to demand an apology from Vance.
Additional reporting by Leila Abboud in Paris