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

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.

"I will support these people to the end," he told us via an exclusive, but shaky, Zoom connection to his training base in eastern Ukraine, "these are really strong, courageous people."  

He has choice words for the Russian invaders. "The Ukrainians were not threatening the Russians, he noted. "Ukrainians were just good free people."

He went on, "There’s no comparison between the Ukrainians defending themselves and the Russians trying to blow up a border."

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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.

John Roberts training Ukrainian soldiers. (John Roberts)

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.

"Russia is trying to crush them," he says, "and if at this point Russia DOES crush them… 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)

"The fight was tough, we were on the edge of our seats," he said, "because of the sheer amount of Russian firepower."

"We didn’t have the ammunition to shoot," he continued, "so the Russians were able to mass enough men to take it from us."

In the end, they lost, running out of weapons: "We would have held it 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."

"I sympathize with my fellow Americans. We have an emergency situation on the southern border." But, he notes, the border and Ukraine are "separate issues."

"The issues we’re having in our democracy over Ukrainian aid," he says, "We cannot fail…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. How the soldiers he trains admire the "red, white and blue." 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." The American stand for liberty and freedom. The American military, and the way we do thinigs."

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

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That is, if the weapons keep coming. In true American-style, "Jackie" remains optimistic. "I’m confident that Americans will do that."

He concluded : "We have always stood on the right side of history."