Reporter’s Notebook: US vet training Ukraine’s finest has message for Congress: ‘We cannot fail on this issue’

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US Veteran trains Ukrainian troops in war against Russia

Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reports on US army veteran, John Roberts. Roberts has fought with, and now trains Ukrainian forces in their now two-year long war against Russia.

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John Roberts is a U.S. Army veteran, a native of California, who, as a civilian, has fought with and now trains Ukrainian forces in their now two-year-long battle against Russia.

In a widely posted open letter last week, Roberts, who also goes by the call sign of “Jackie,” expressed his concerns about U.S. military aid to Ukraine possibly “drying up,” as a $60 billion aid package remains blocked on Capitol Hill.

In an exclusive Zoom interview with Roberts who was at his training base in eastern Ukraine, he told us, “I will support these people to the end… these are really good people.” 

With Russia now making inroads against Ukraine along a very long front line, Roberts is worried that the U.S. could play a role in Ukraine’s downfall.

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John Roberts training Ukrainian soldiers. (John Roberts)

“If Russia does crush them,” he explained, “it’s going to look like we let them do it.”

Roberts believes he has evidence to back that up. The troops he works with were some of the last holdouts in Avdiivka, the embattled Ukrainian town that recently fell to Russian forces, giving Moscow its first triumph in months.

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John Roberts with a Ukrainian soldier during training. (John Roberts)

Roberts says the Ukrainian troops simply ran out of weaponry. 

“We would have held it,” he asserted, “if we had the ammunition.”

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John Roberts somewhere in Ukraine. (John Roberts)

Roberts labels himself a conservative and understands there are domestic demands on federal funding… including along the U.S. border.  But he also deeply feels that the Ukraine fight is “do or die.”

“We cannot fail on this issue,” he said, “We cannot let Ukraine down.”

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John Roberts training soldiers on a machine gun. (John Roberts)

For the veteran who has been injured himself in the fighting here, this is also personal. He sees how much the people of Ukraine admire the U.S. And he doesn’t want to let them down.

“Half the soldiers I work with wear American flags into battle,” he explained, “It’s because they respect the ‘American way.’” 

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He added, “They’re going to be a great ally when this is over.”  

 That is, if the weapons keep coming. Like a lot of Americans, “Jackie” remains optimistic.

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 “We have always stood,” he concluded, “on the right side of history.”

Greg Palkot currently serves as a London-based senior foreign affairs correspondent for Fox News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in 1998 as a correspondent. Follow him on Twitter@GregPalkot.