The US vice-president has sparked a row with comments he made about the potential involvement of international forces to police a peace deal in Ukraine.
UK opposition politicians accused JD Vance of disrespecting British forces, after he told Fox News a US stake in Ukraine’s economy was a “better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
The UK and France have said they would be willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
Vance has since insisted he did not “even mention the UK or France,” adding both had “fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond”.
However, he did not specify which country or countries he was referring to.
In a post of social media, he added: “But let’s 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.”
So far only the UK and France have publicly committed troops towards policing any potential peace deal in Ukraine, although Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously said a “number of countries” have agreed to commit troops.
Earlier, Vance’s original comments had drawn criticism from UK opposition politicians.
Asked about Vance’s comments later, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the vice-president did not call Britain a “random country”.
Credit: bbc.com
