Barry Adams is an Alabama native, a lifelong Republican voter, and a former program manager at the NATO liaison office in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 2005 to 2012. APR recently spoke with Adams to better understand how the Trump administration’s approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine — an approach which has shifted away from Ukrainian support and toward Russian appeasement — might be affecting the opinions of some Republican voters.
With strong connections to the Ukrainian state, its people and its culture, Adams said that the war in Ukraine is an issue of great importance to him.
“Those seven years, of course, very deeply impacted my views of the country and also what I feel is an American obligation to support Ukraine. Most of the time, I was responsible for a NATO program that aimed to further develop Ukraine’s civil service in the security sector… and in that role I was able to meet literally hundreds of Ukrainians: military, civil servants, but also Ukrainians from every walk of life. People working on my car, people in stores, people that I at times stayed with,” Adams said.
“I feel strongly about it, and I realize that others don’t have that experience simply, but the least that I can do is to share my thoughts,” he later added.
Adams went on to detail his view of the war, making it emphatically clear that he sees the conflict as an unprovoked invasion on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There’s a lot of misinformation on the topic. If you look at cause and effect, the reason that Russia and Ukraine are at war is that Vladimir Putin does not accept the existence of a separate Ukraine, of a Ukrainian nation separate from Russia, or a Ukrainian state that is not a vassal, essentially a satellite state, of Russia. Period. I think this is essential to state very clearly,” Adams said.
“[Putin] has gone on record saying that Ukraine, in his opinion, does not exist,” he said. “That’s all that you need to know about this conflict.”
Adams subsequently criticized the Trump administration and other Republican legislators for obfuscating these realities and for reducing U.S. support for Ukraine. In March, after his now-infamous Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump paused all U.S. military aid shipments to Ukraine. Those shipments have since resumed, but Trump has still not announced any new military aid to Ukraine since taking office in January.
“I think it’s absolutely shameful that any American politician, moreover, a Republican, would distance themselves so much from our nation’s principles,” Adams said. “That they could see this conflict in any other way than a brutal, unprovoked invasion of a democratic country, and one in which Russia has targeted civilians repeatedly, not by accident — things happen in war — but repeatedly targeted civilians. And I am amazed and ashamed that any U.S. politician would ever have any problem seeing the moral imperative of supporting Ukraine. I’m absolutely amazed and ashamed.”
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, has been among the most vocal Republicans when it comes to deriding Ukraine while simultaneously downplaying the severity of Putin’s invasion.
“[Putin] doesn’t want Ukraine, he doesn’t want Europe,” Tuberville said in a 2024 appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “He’s got enough land of his own. He just wants to make sure that he does not have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.”
Meanwhile, Tuberville has called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and “not a constitutional president.”
Additionally, U.S. Reps. Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Dale Strong and Gary Palmer — all of whom are Republicans representing Alabama — have each received “anti-Ukraine” ratings on the Republicans for Ukraine Report Card, which tracks how members of Congress have voted on Ukrainian aid legislation since 2022.
In regards to Tuberville specifically, Adams referred to the senator as a “useful idiot” who is “parroting Moscow talking points” despite initially having his heart “in the right place” when Russia first invaded Ukraine.
Adams also brought up a February 2024 Fox Business interview during which Tuberville said, “Vladimir Putin wants out of this — you heard that on Tucker Carlson.”
“That encapsulates everything that’s wrong with Republican positions, some Republican positions, on this war, and it really disqualifies [Tuberville] at so many levels,” Adams said of the quote. “You know, we’re a year beyond this quote, but to think that then, or now, that Vladimir Putin wants out of this is, is really delusional.”
APR took the opportunity to ask Adams about Tuberville’s rumored gubernatorial aspirations and whether he would vote for the senator to be Alabama’s next governor.
“I would never vote for him for governor,” Adams replied.
Adams also said that he believes many Republican lawmakers turned their backs on Ukraine as a way to fall in line with Trump, both before and after he won reelection in November 2024.
“When [Trump] starts to say, ‘Hey, every time Zelensky comes to town, he leaves with $60 billion,’ I would have expected right-minded Republicans to vocally support Ukraine in those moments, instead of saying, ‘[Trump is] our presidential nominee, I can’t go there,'” Adams said. “And I feel the same about it today.”
As some Republican lawmakers have turned their backs on U.S. support for Ukraine, so, too, have Republican voters across the country.
Since 2022, the share of Republicans who express concern about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, who view Russia as an explicit enemy, and who fear Russian invasion of other countries in the region has all sharply declined. Additionally, as of November 2024, only 36 percent of Republicans say the U.S. has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself, compared to 65 percent of Democrats.
Pew also found that, over the past year, “Republicans have become somewhat more likely to see Russia favorably and to express confidence in Putin.”
For Adams, however, Ukraine remains an important issue, one which he says has already affected his voting behavior.
“I think the Republicans are inconsistent. I continue to support many and most Republican domestic policy positions, but at the same time, this is something that has already impacted my voting behavior, more to the extent of no longer supporting Republicans and writing in other candidates than necessarily changing my party allegiance,” Adams said. “Currently, I still agree with many, if not most, Republican domestic policy positions. However, let’s wait and see.”
“I’m definitely conflicted,” Adams added. “We’re a presidential system, but we also have a system where the purse strings are controlled by Congress. I’m very much looking at, not only Alabama, but all Republican representatives to see how this plays out. I think I’ll just leave it at that. I’m certainly watching very closely.”
