GOP Senate candidate JD Vance said he doesn't 'really care what happens to Ukraine'

• JD Vance said he wants Biden to focus on the US border instead of Ukraine and Russia.
• Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio, said he doesn't care about what happens to Ukraine.

JD Vance, a Republican running for US Senate in Ohio, said he's not particularly interested in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

"I gotta be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another," Vance said on an episode of Steve Bannon's War Room. "I do care about the fact that in my community right now the leading cause of death among 18-45-year-olds is Mexican fentanyl that's coming across the southern border."

"I'm sick of Joe Biden focusing on the border of a country I don't care about while he lets the border of his own country become a total war zone," Vance said.

Vance, a venture capitalist and author of the bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," is running in the high-profile Ohio race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman. Vance posted a clip of his comments about Ukraine to Twitter on Saturday.

Vance, who served in the Marines, added that he didn't enlist "to go and fight Vladmir Putin because he didn't believe in transgender rights," suggesting that as the reason the US does not want Russia to invade Ukraine.

Vance's comments come as the White House warns Russia could attack Ukraine at any moment. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed deep concern over a potential invasion, threatening sanctions against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned earlier this month that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could spark a "fully-fledged" European war.