Malcolm Nance Reports from Ukraine After Joining Foreign Legion, Tells CNN: ‘There Are No Nazis in This Country’
Former MSNBC analyst and Navy veteran Malcolm Nance joined CNN’s New Day on Monday to discuss his time working with Ukraine’s foreign legion and push back against Russian claims of the country containing Nazis.
Nance said he’s been in Ukraine for two months and assessed, “there are no Nazis in this country.”
“You know, there’s an old saying … fighting your enemy is not about fighting the person that you hate, it’s about protecting those who are behind you that you love,” Nance said. “And this country was completely innocent of all the insane charges that the Russians have been bringing about Nazis being everywhere. I’ve spent two months here, OK? There are no Nazis in this country. The Jewish community here is old and deep, including the president.”
On the eve of Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, pushed back against Nazi claims from Russia.
“How can I be a Nazi? Explain it to my grandfather, who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army, and died a colonel in an independent Ukraine,” he said in a televised address.
Nance told CNN he was in Ukraine a month before the invasion and said he had no interest in simply being a television analyst during the conflict.
“I wasn’t just going to sit on television anymore, give my opinion, point to dots on the map. They made a call for people with skill, with combat experience, and I answered that call,” he said, revealing the foreign legion in Ukraine has people from all over the world, including Italy, France, and the U.S.
Nance’s harshest words were for Russia’s military forces, which have been accused of carrying out numerous attacks on civilians, something Russia has denied. Nance said Russia’s military force is “no army at all” and accused them of raping and murdering Ukrainians.
“It’s just men who are out raping, murdering, and pillaging, and trying to stay alive,” he said, chalking the invasion up to genocide.
Nance revealed he’d joined the foreign legion last week in an interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid. It was later revealed by MSNBC that he was no longer working as a national security analyst.
