Former MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance has joined the foreign military unit fighting for Ukraine and shared his experiences during an appearance on the cable news network.On Twitter, he posted a photo of himself holding an assault rifle that he captioned: ¡°I¡¯m DONE talking.¡±
The Navy veteran elaborated while being interviewed Monday on MSNBC¡¯s "The ReidOut", wearing military fatigues and combat gear. The national-security analyst said he joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense about a month ago to fight the Russian invasion and assist in the survival of Ukraine.?
The former naval intelligence officer, who has served as an on-air analyst at the Comcast-owned capable network since 2017, appeared while carrying what appeared to be a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Speaking in the interview, he said, "I spent quite a bit of time here in the pre-war period, and when the invasion happened, I had friends who are in Donetsk, who are in the Ukrainian army, who are writing to us and telling us, ¡®We're not gonna survive tonight. We've been hit 500 times,¡± said Nance during the televised show.
On air, he told Reid that he joined the international legion ¡ª a multinational group of about 20,000 fighters ¡ª because he wanted to help his friends.
¡°The more I saw of the war going on, the more I thought, I'm done talking. It's time to take action here,¡± he added.
Nance is no longer a contributor-analyst at MSNBC, The Times confirmed on Tuesday. However, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Nance was identified as a contributor on air as recently as Feb 28 ¡ª just four days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Nance called the ongoing war ¡°existential¡±, adding that Russia brought it to the Ukrainian people. He accused Russia of ¡°mass-murdering¡± civilians. He said that there are people here in Ukraine like him ¡°who are here to do something about it¡±.
Nance stated that the purpose of the international legion is to protect the innocent people of Ukraine from Russian aggression.
¡°It's not a conventional war, Joy. Even though you have two armed forces going head to head here. You have another group ¡ª I won't even refer to the Russians as an army ¡ª just using mass heavy weapons that are used in combat against civilians,¡± he explained.
Nance revealed that Russia is destroying infrastructure, and killing men, women and children. ¡°We really have to assist (the Ukrainians) in any way to stop this, so I decided I came here to assist them with the skills that I have myself,¡± he added.
Speaking during the interview, the former MSNBC analyst also went on to say that Russians are ¡°barely¡± attacking Ukrainian troops. ¡°Their emphasis seems to be the mass murder of civilians, which seems to be against all laws of war,¡± he said, adding, ¡°These are war crimes.¡±
His arrival in Ukraine comes as Russian forces have continued their offensive in eastern Ukraine and move toward the Donbas ¡ª which includes the besieged city of Mariupol ¡ª while leaving mass casualties in their wake.
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