Beattie is an anti-establishment media figure who has led the right-wing news aggregator Revolver News. A critic of American foreign policy, including funding for Ukraine, his reported appointment has prompted social media users to voice concern about what it signifies for Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression.

The deputy governor of a Russian region has been killed fighting in Ukraine, becoming the highest-ranking Russian official to die in the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous.”