US family in Kyiv mourns son killed in war, upset by Trump's lurch to Russia
World
US family in Kyiv mourns son killed in war, upset by Trump's lurch to Russia
KYIV (Reuters) - For the mother of US veteran Ethan Hertweck, travelling to Kyiv to collect the body of her son who was killed in Russia's war in Ukraine in 2023 has rammed home the realities of the conflict.
It has also made her question US President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis since returning to power. He labelled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a "dictator" and said Ukraine was responsible for a war which Russia began.
Trump spoke directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin before Zelenskiy, and the United States has been holding talks with Russia with no involvement of Ukraine or Europe.
"I don't understand how he could make it sound like Putin is not a dictator and that Zelenskiy is," said Leslie Hertweck, who voted for the Republican candidate in November's election. "So, we were upset, definitely."
Trump has since distanced himself from those comments. But his lurch towards Moscow in a war in which the US has been Kyiv's most important ally has caused consternation in Ukraine and among Washington's traditional allies.
Leslie Hertweck said she had been trying to communicate what was happening in Ukraine to Americans, some of whom she said did not understand the seriousness of the threat Russia posed.
"Our hotel was shaking," she told Reuters, recounting explosions this week as Russia launched some of its biggest drone attacks of the war. "That made it really real to me, and what people face here."
"So (we are) trying to relay that to people in the States and say: 'Oh, the war is very real.' Now you can't talk to anyone who has not lost at least one person, whether it's a family member or close friend from this war."
'THE LOUDEST SIGH'
After health problems prevented her son from continuing to serve with US marines, he went to the Polish border where he helped women and children fleeing Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion started in February, 2022.
With a nagging feeling he could do more a year later, he got his combat medic license and crossed into Ukraine to help save lives on the battlefield.
Before leaving for Ukraine in 2023, his father asked if there was anything he could say or do to make him not get on the plane and he refused.
