You're reading: McCain says US should arm Ukraine, impose tough sanctions on Russia

Saying that Vladimir Putin's justification for the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula is "eerily similar" to Adolf Hitler's justification of conquests, U.S. Sen. John McCain (Republican-Arizona) said the United States must arm Ukraine to deter Russia from further invasion.

 “Let me tell you how far off-base this (President Barack Obama) administration is,” McCain said, mocking the president’s refusal to help Ukrainian militarily and limiting assistance to relatively small amounts of financial aid and military meals-ready-to-eat so as not to “provoke” the Russian leader.

“It’s crazy we haven’t figured him out,” McCain said of Putin. And of the Obama administration, he said: “They keep pushing the re-set button.”

McCain made the remarks during an extensive April 22 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, an American news program.

Besides arming Ukraine, McCain said he would slap severe sanctions not only on Russia, but on those who do business with Russians. He said the current sanctions against 11 Russian individuals and one Russian bank will do nothing but encourage further Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

“So far it’s been none,” McCain said of the cost that Putin has paid for his annexation of Crimea and his continued threats not only against Ukraine, but also against the Baltic nations and Moldova.

“I don’t think they’re doing a helluva lot,” McCain said of the Obama administration. “The only thing Vladimir Putin understands is peace through strength…He’s got to understand that there are all kinds of repercussions. We’re the most powerful nation in the world and Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.” 

McCain would have more military exercises in Eastern Europe and bolster the defenses of NATO nations. He would specifically give Ukraine light arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. 

Russia’s military aggression and threats are making it difficult for the interim government, in power since the EuroMaidan Revolution ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to govern and hold a May 25 presidential election on schedule.

McCain said that the United States must clearly uphold the NATO principle that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all of them.

McCain also said that the United States can help Ukraine become energy independent.

He said that Americans “need to understand what’s at stake here” in the need to defend allies.

“Putin is putting all kinds of pressure on the Baltics. Moldovans are extremely nervous because they don’t have the protection of article 5 of NATO – that an attack on one is an attack on all.”

“You and I know that the Europeans are not going to impose any meaningful sanctions on Putin because of the energy issue,” McCain said. “Obama should step forward and say – we’re going to do this. And if you do business with these (Russian) banks, you’re not going to do business with us. In other words, a firm strong message to Vladimir Putin that we’re not going to sit by and watch him restore the Russian empire.”

America’s energy strategy should “counter Putin’s one-advantage – the gas station – and that will be the end of Vladimir Putin and his empire. That’s what we can do and it’s not World War III.” Russia derives 75 percent of its export revenue from natural gas and oil exports, which supply half of the national budget.

McCain said America should also help Ukraine join the European Union, give it International Monetary Fund loans and help it counter Kremlin propaganda in eastern Ukraine and elsewhere.

“They will go as far as they get a free ride,” McCain said of the Putin-led Russia, which has been described as “quasi-religious nationalism.”

“He is calculating the cost-benefit. If he goes into Moldova and nothing happens to him, with 1,400 troops in Transnistria, Putin will be particularly encouraged in the Baltics. If they can get away with it, they will do it.”

McCain said he watched a Hitler speech from a hotel balcony in Vienna, Austria, in which the Nazi German leader defended taking over Austria as defending German-speakers to be “eerily similar” to Putin’s justification to invade all of the former Soviet Union because Russian speakers live there.

Here is the entire interview:

U.S. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, went on the Charlie Rose Show on April 22 and said that America needs to arm Ukraine so that the nation can defend itself from Russian attack.