Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., told Newsmax on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ''highly likely'' to invade Ukraine soon.
''With all the troops that are massed on the [Russian-Ukrainian] border there, with ... 30,000 troops in Belarus, high-level military operations — you don't go through this level of effort if you don't intend to do something,'' Wittman said on ''Spicer & Co.''
Wittman speculated that Russia seeks to connect the Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia to create a formidable navy in the Black Sea that provides the country access to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 after pro-Russian separatists rose up in the eastern part of the country due to the toppling of President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally.
''I believe Putin is indeed intending on invading Ukraine. At the very least, I think he intends to take eastern Ukraine,'' he said. ''And why? Because eastern Ukraine would give him a connection to Crimea, which would allow him to put in place a permanent, high-scale naval operation there.''
Wittman added that Putin believes Ukraine is ''part of the Russian native footprint'' and a natural part of the historical Russian nation. He also said he doesn't believe that ''Putin is hesitant at all'' about sanctions from the West.
''I think Putin is willing to put his people through suffering in order to get what he wants out of this,'' he said.
Wittman sounded off quickly at the idea of the U.S. responding militarily, saying that he thinks ''any response is a non-military response, so that limits it to economic sanctions, to diplomatic sanctions.''
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