defend American values on Ukrainian soil.

So there’s your problem.

“There was a moment that I thought we were actually going to go to war with America. It felt like Order 66 from Star Wars [where the Jedi are designated traitors to the Empire and the order is given to kill them],” said “Dutch”, 25, from South Carolina. “It was like, oh, shit, all my friends are going to try to kill me now.”

US army veterans fight and die in the fields of Ukraine

7–9 minutes

The Americans were pinned down, ­lying prone among sunflower stalks as they took rocket fire from Russian ­positions across the fields. Then, mortar burst in the air above them. All seven of Delta Team were wounded, some ­repeatedly.

“I remember looking at one sun­flower that was taller than the weeds while I was holding pressure on Dubs’ wounds, thinking we are all going to bleed out and die here,” said “Tango”, the Delta Team medic who was hit with shrapnel four times. One of the 24 shards that entered his body and sliced into the sciatic nerve in his leg.

Tango and his brothers-in-arms in Chosen Company, 59th Brigade, are among hundreds of US veterans fighting with Ukrainian forces. Many of them have shed blood, some have made the ultimate sacrifice, to defend American values on Ukrainian soil.

Now they feel betrayed by the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine, a marked departure from that of the ­Biden administration. In particular, they feel betrayed by what they see as his parroting of Russian narratives.

Tango, 35, is from Texas, a deeply conservative state. “A lot of my friends and family are hard-right Republicans. Even people I know, that I’m really close to, I’ve seen their rhetoric change just as Trump and his media have spun it,” Tango said on a break between ­missions.

“I’m like, Hey, you’ve been speaking with me about this war. You know what’s actually happening here, yet you’re still just voicing things that you know are not true. It really blows my mind how easy it is to manipulate public opinion in the way that it’s being done. It does feel like a betrayal. ­America is now just a business being run by a businessman.”

Tango fought al-Qaeda with the US 3rd Infantry Division, 315 Infantry ­Regiment, in Iraq, but says fighting the war in Ukraine gives him a far ­clearer sense of purpose. “Ukraine is a sovereign country that was invaded by a ­foreign power and we’re here defending it. That’s the fact of the matter and nothing’s going to change it,” he said. “It’s nice to be resolutely on the side of right, this time around.”

Tango survived that spring day in 2023 but two of his teammates, Lance Lawrence and Andrew “Dubs” Webber, did not. During the Ukrainian counterattack in the Donbas, his team had ­advanced too far ahead of the rest of the company and were stranded two kilometres from the nearest evacuation point.

“We ended up hitting a Russian position, which we fought with for a little bit and we thought we cleared, but then we started getting hit with rockets and mortars from a trench and tree line to our right,” Tango recalled.

They took one casualty and tried to pull back, but got caught out in the open in a weed-infested sunflower field. After being hit in the leg by the mortars, Tango could only crawl to his comrades to try to stabilise them.

“I had four people there with me that I was trying to stabilise,” said Tango. Dubs he said, “was checking out my leg, when he got hit with something that penetrated his lungs”. He died before they could be picked up.

The mission was a disaster for the company, which was forced to retreat with 90 per cent casualties, mostly wounded but two dead, Tango said. In the months that followed, he had to go through a long period of rehabilitation. Now he has returned to his unit, despite the dangers.

For Tango and other Americans who thought their country was behind them in their fight with Russia, the sudden shift in rhetoric from the White House has come as a blow.

The acrimonious meeting last month between President Zelensky, Trump and his vice-President JD Vance, whose cousin Nate has also fought for Ukraine, was perhaps felt none more keenly than by the Americans here.

“There was a moment that I thought we were actually going to go to war with America. It felt like Order 66 from Star Wars [where the Jedi are designated traitors to the Empire and the order is given to kill them],” said “Dutch”, 25, from South Carolina. “It was like, oh, shit, all my friends are going to try to kill me now.”

Dutch had just returned from the front lines when we met at the base of his new unit, Ukraine’s lethally effective Third Assault Brigade. Before ­arriving in Ukraine in April 2022, he fought for the French Foreign Legion alongside American troops in Mali and Iraq.

He has served in many of Ukraine’s fiercest battles, including the 2023 cross-border incursion into Russia’s Belgorod region, where he and three other Americans masqueraded as ­Russian resistance fighters attached to an anti-regime Belarusian Legion under the command of Ukraine’s ­military intelligence, HUR.

Dutch calls himself “right wing” and shares many of Trump’s views on ­traditional family values. Yet he is ­appalled that the US president has ­allowed Vladimir Putin to present Russia as a fellow champion of them.

“From what I’ve seen on the battlefield and the way that they behave, you see that they don’t share those values at all,” he said. “The Russian military is a lot more violent than what you see on our news, they’re savage. Rape, executions, torture, they’ll post it on social media, they’ll send it to their friends and family, openly bragging about how they are war criminals.”

Dutch, too, has spilt his blood on Ukrainian soil in a battle that he sees as essential to preserving the very notion of freedom. “I was on an assault mission and went into a trench, more like just a hole, not dug out in the back. An RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fell right ­behind me. I had bits of shrapnel in my ass,” he said, laughing.

He had not slept in two days because of the Shahed drone attacks that ­accompanied Putin’s pledge of a ceasefire on energy infrastructure this week.

Many of the soldiers have made ­extraordinary sacrifices, upending their lives to fight for Ukraine. “Clutch”, 35, a former army reserve officer also from Texas, sold his house, packed his bags and took up volunteering last autumn to help Ukraine before enrolling for its armed forces this month. He is determined to fund himself through the war, not wanting to burden the Ukrainian state. “I just kept seeing all the kids dying and then ladies, too. It didn’t seem fair … I wanted to come out here and help people, even if I’m playing a small, insignificant part.”

He travelled shortly before Trump’s inauguration, expecting the new US president to strong-arm the Russians into a deal. “My thought going into it was we’re going to have the full backing of the United States, then he froze the aid. Now that I’m here I see it really ­affects morale, it was a big let down.”

All of the Americans who spoke to The Times were keen for a ceasefire to pause the fighting, although none ­believed Russia would give up on its long-term ambitions to take over Ukraine. “Russia is not going to stop coming, they see Ukraine as theirs,” said Clutch. “Even if there is a ceasefire, it’s just going to be temporary.”

"American troops have spilt blood for western values in the war and feel betrayed by President Trump"

So which values exactly? Imperialism? $?

"US army veterans fight and die in the fields of Ukraine"

Can we get to cutting the "fight and" part out?

Tango fought al-Qaeda with the US 3rd Infantry Division, 315 Infantry ­Regiment, in Iraq

This guy is an idiot. Why doesn't he do minimal research before risking his life. First he fought against a US proxy then he fought with a US proxy.

rip bozo

imperial troops aren't use to fighting locals that can shoot back

western values

So, they fought for fascism and defense of capital, got used and discarded. Well... At least history is consistent in the way useful idiots get treated