Malcolm Nance, who has contributed to MSNBC, appeared on the network in riot gear on Monday and said he had joined the fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I spent quite a bit of time here in the pre-war period,” Nance told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on The ReidOut. “And when the invasion happened, I had friends who were in Donetsk, who were in the Ukrainian army, who wrote to us and told us, ‘We won’t survive tonight. We got hit 500 times.’”
“The more I saw of the war, the more I thought, ‘I’m done talking. It’s time to act.”
Nance stated that he has joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a foreign military unit of the country’s armed forces.
Nance said he joined the International Legion about a month ago, “and I’m here to help this country fight a war of annihilation. This is an existential war and Russia brought it to these people and they are killing civilians en masse. And there are people like me here who are here to do something about it.”
He said they are “there for one purpose and only one, and that is to protect the innocent people of Ukraine from this Russian aggression.” It is not a conventional war.”
.@MalcolmNance fight in #Ukraine: “Let me say something to the President of the United States. Give them long-range counter-battery artillery… Something that can outperform their artillery. If you do that, stop the attacks on civilians.” #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/ffbBedBEgG
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) April 18, 2022
Nance served in the US Navy and became a counter-terrorism specialist and was an analyst at MSNBC. A spokesman for the network did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but previously told Politico that he is no longer with the network. He is no longer listed as a contributor on his Twitter profile.
Nance said he didn’t think he would be attacked by the Russians. “The war being waged here is being waged against everyone. They don’t go around chasing American flag insignia or to see who’s black, who’s Asian or who’s Hispanic.” He said they were fighting “side to side, elbow to elbow” with Ukrainian forces. He said the Russians are “hardly” attacking Ukrainian troops. “Their focus seems to be the mass murder of civilians, which seems to violate all the laws of war. These are war crimes,” he said.
In a post on his personal Twitter page, Nance reiterated, “I’m done talking.”
I’m DONE to talk. #JoinTheLegion #StopRussia #SlavaUkraini pic.twitter.com/ob3gL1cZ7P
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) April 19, 2022