Who is JD Vance? Trump's running mate and fierce critic of US support for Ukraine

There are concerns over continued American support for Ukraine after Donald Trump announced his running mate for the US election.

Republican Senator JD Vance has been a vocal critic of providing aid to the Ukrainian war effort as it continues to fight against the Russian invasion - and it is feared this assistance could be threatened if Mr Trump returns to the White House.

Mr Vance – who represents Ohio – has been one of the fiercest critics of providing support to Ukraine in Congress.

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He led an unsuccessful campaign in the Senate to block a $60bn package, claiming American support is needlessly costly.

Writing in the New York Times in April he said: "The most fundamental question: how much does Ukraine need and how much can we actually provide?

"Mr [US President Joe] Biden suggests that a $60bn supplemental means the difference between victory and defeat in a major war between Russia and Ukraine.

"That is... wrong. Fundamentally, we lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war."

He also branded Ukraine's call for a return to the pre-invasion borders "fantastical".

The Ohio Senator has also called on the Ukrainian military to stop offensive manoeuvres in the war with Russia and begin negotiating a settlement.

He continued: "By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its precious military manpower, stop the bleeding and provide time for negotiations to commence."

He told long-time Trump adviser Steve Bannon in a podcast in 2022: "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other."

Mr Vance wants to see the US divert funds to the country’s southern border and thinks America should focus on threats in Asia rather than support Ukraine.

He told the Munich Security Conference this should be the focus for the next 40 years, and manufacturing Patriot missiles for Ukraine would deny weapons to Taiwan if China were to invade.

Mr Vance said: "I think that we should pivot. The United States has to focus more on East Asia.

"That is going to be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact.

"The problem in Ukraine from the perspective of the United States of America, and I represent, I believe, the majority of American public opinion... is that there's no clear endpoint, and fundamentally the limiting factors for American support of Ukraine, it’s not money, it’s munitions.

"America and this is true, by the way, of Europe too, we don't make enough munitions to support a war in Eastern Europe, a war in the Middle East and potentially a contingency in East Asia.

"So the United States is fundamentally limited."

Last week Mr Vance, during a speech at a right-wing conference described the UK as an "Islamist country" with nuclear weapons.

Talking at the National Conservatism Conference, he recounted a conversation and said: "I was talking about you know what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon.

"And we were like maybe it's Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts.

"And then we sort of finally decided maybe it's actually the UK since Labour just took over."

The comments drew laughter from the crowd.

His speech centred around how "American leaders should look out for Americans... and for the Brits, UK leaders should look out for citizens of the UK or subjects or whatever you guys call yourselves".