Ukrainian soldier stands guard near ammunition depot near Kiev.
U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today delivered the following statement at a press conference during his visit to Kyiv, Ukraine:
“I am Senator John McCain, and it is always a pleasure to be back in Ukraine.
“This is my fourth trip to Kyiv since brave Ukraine took to the Maidan last year to demonstrate for freedom and their country’s independence. I keep coming back, and I am here now, because I believe what is happening in Ukraine is about far more than Ukraine. It is about the principles of international order that have brought peace and hope to Europe, and much of the world beyond Europe, since 1945 — and whether a world based on these principles will endure or not.
“Before coming here, I looked at a definition for the word invasion. It is as follows: ‘an incursion by a large number of people or things into a place … an unwelcome intrusion into another’s domain.’ Now, if we in the West cannot say clearly that what Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine constitutes an invasion of a sovereign country — if we obfuscate this truth because we refuse to face it — then we are living in Putin’s world.
“Just as an invasion is an invasion, our world either has rules, or it does not. It is either organized around principles of justice, or it is not. If Putin can invade a sovereign country for no reason other than greed, belligerence, and imperial ambition, what is to stop others from doing so? If that principle does not apply in Ukraine, why should it apply anywhere else? Freedom is indivisible everywhere, or it becomes negotiable everywhere.
“And yet, our principles will count for little if they are not backed by our power and resolve. High-minded rhetoric does not do very well against tanks. Ukrainian leaders I have met are not asking foreign powers to defend their country for them. Ukrainians are doing that themselves. But they want and need greater support.
“It was argued for months that providing arms and greater assistance to Ukraine could provoke a Russian invasion. But now Ukraine is being invaded anyway, showing that the real provocation for Putin has been the perception of Western weakness. What should be clear is that Putin’s appetite only grows with the eating, and he will keep taking more until he faces a consequence he is unwilling to incur. Clearly we have not reached that point, and it is urgent that we do.
“I have come to Kyiv to show America’s support for Ukraine’s struggle and to urge my government and the world to do more to support this country — to urgently provide defensive weapons, intelligence, and other assistance that can help Ukrainians defend their sovereign country; and to impose truly crushing sanctions on Russia. We should do this not just for Ukraine’s sake, but because fundamental principles of the European and global order are at stake here — the principle that sovereign states have the right to make their own free decisions, that wars of aggression should be confined to our bloody past, and that power alone should not be a license to oppress and subjugate.
“The horrors of the last century unfolded because good people too often failed to recognize what was at stake for them in the suffering of others. If Europeans and Americans and the civilized world do not recall that lesson now, and do more to help Ukraine in its hour of greatest need, the darkness in our world will only grow.”