Far-right political activist Laura Loomer holds some views that most people consider deeply offensive, but after her first visit to Ukraine, she tweeted: “Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian. I feel like such an asshole for minimising the struggle of Ukrainians for the last five years… There are people in Ukraine who have to run to a bomb shelter everyday and some of us had the audacity to say Russia wasn’t wrong because we believed the lie that Ukraine is a country full of Nazi sympathizers. We have been so propagandised by Russia.”
Loomer’s change of heart highlights widespread propaganda
Lord Ashcroft says he commends Loomer, a loyal Donald Trump supporter, for admitting she was wrong, but highlights her change of heart because so many people, particularly in America, have fallen for absurd Russian propaganda – that Ukraine has never existed as a country to claims its leaders are Nazis. This week President Zelensky visited the US yet again, including meeting Trump in the hope the US President will press ahead with peace negotiations, talks that have waned in part due to America’s war with Iran.
Ashcroft’s biggest regret is that those now conducting the US’s limited peace negotiations have not taken the opportunity to visit Kyiv and other cities to see the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia’s relentless bombing. He is thinking, in particular, about lead negotiator Steve Witkoff, who has visited Russia several times in recent years, and also Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, who has joined Witkoff for many of the peace talks in the Middle East. Both have responsibility for the stalled peace talks between Ukraine and Russia yet, quite remarkably, neither has visited Ukraine.
Witkoff and Kushner criticised for never visiting Ukraine
Ashcroft would be confident that Witkoff is an astute negotiator when it comes to a huge real estate deal but his skills negotiating peace have been found wanting. In an interview with Tucker Carlson in March 2025, Witkoff talked about his role in the Middle East. He said: “Now I want to get up close and personal. That’s why I went to Gaza. I was the first US official to go to Gaza in 22 years. But how would you implement a peace deal if you didn’t go to the place where the peace deal was being implemented?”
Ashcroft notes that Witkoff has turned down several invitations to visit Ukraine over the past two years. Similarly, Kushner has never visited Ukraine during the all-out war which has now left an estimated 1.5 million people dead or injured.
Some Republicans have visited Ukraine
Not all Republican politicians are narrow-minded, Ashcroft says, and some have indeed visited Ukraine to show their support. Those visitors included Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this month. Along with Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, Graham was behind the Russia Sanctioning Act. Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star US Army general and a staunch Republican supporter, visited Ukraine four times last year in his role as President Trump's Special Envoy. Ashcroft interviewed Kellogg last year and discovered he is indeed sympathetic to Ukraine given that he, like Ashcroft, sees the war as a straightforward battle between aggressor (Russia) and victim (Ukraine) and right (Ukraine) and wrong (Russia). Sadly his envoyship ended in December.
Ashcroft has visited Ukraine 15 times during the all-out war and his next visit is already arranged. He has seen how whole families have been wiped out by missile and drone attacks on civilian targets, heard countless accounts of the torture of prisoners of war, and visited the scenes of horrific war crimes. He realises US politicians are busy but, if they took time to make just a single visit to Ukraine for a handful of days, he feels confident most of those who have opposed aid packages for Ukraine would realise they’ve made a mistake. He would happily accompany Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Ukraine because he believes they would, like Laura Loomer, see the error of their ways in accepting Russian propaganda rather than seeing the truth at first hand.
