Conservative political activist Laura Loomer sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview that resulted in a 180-degree turn in her previously charged rhetoric about the country’s four-plus-year war with Russia.
“There are people in Ukraine who have to run to a bomb shelter every day, and some of us had the audacity to say Russia wasn’t wrong because we believed the lie that Ukraine is a country full of Nazi sympathizers,” she posted to social media. “We have been so propagandized by Russia, and we don’t even realize it.”
For years, Ms. Loomer downplayed Russia’s invasion and pushed Russian talking points to her nearly 2 million followers, at one point declaring Ukraine “a country full of Nazi apologists” — an assertion used by Russia to justify its invasion.
This week she abruptly reversed course, interviewing Mr. Zelenskyy outside Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday.
Her visit came two days after Russia’s deadly attack on multiple Ukrainian cities, in which she said she experienced her first air raid and heard sirens blaring.
“This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Ms. Loomer wrote on social media during her visit to the country earlier this week. “I feel like such an a——— for minimizing the struggle of Ukrainians for the last 5 years. I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say.”
Russia fired ballistic missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens.
“It is really important that @LauraLoomer is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are,” Mr. Zelenskyy’s office wrote Tuesday. “There is no better way to get informed opinion than through personal experience which allows to deal with Russian propaganda.”
“It takes courage to come to Ukraine and not be deterred by Russian propaganda or air raid sirens. Thank you, Laura,” the office added Thursday.
Ms. Loomer’s shift may expose a fault line in the GOP, as she has long been aligned with the MAGA-base skepticism of Ukraine aid championed by figures such as Vice President J.D. Vance, who was among the earliest and most vocal critics of continued U.S. support.
Even President Trump posted her interview with Mr. Zelenskyy to Truth Social, captioning it: “Very Good!!!”
Ms. Loomer, an ardent supporter of Mr. Trump, said she does not “care if people in the GOP disavow me” over her change in heart.
“Welcome to the club of being disturbed. I am disturbed by the GOP’s refusal to crack down on the Russian and Islamic propaganda that is rotting the brains of GOP voters, thanks to the Woke Reich and Podcastistan,” she said Thursday.
