Lankford Says Putin Is Trying to Provoke a Larger-scale War

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on Rumble.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today joined the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulow radio show to discuss Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine. Lankford recently warned on the Senate floor that Russian aggression and military posturing on the border with Ukraine should be taken seriously and met with a strong US response.

Lankford discussed with Jordan and Jay Sekulow the sanctions legislation Lankford has introduced to hold Russia and any nation enabling them accountable. Lankford introduced the Never Yielding Europe’s Territory (NYET) Act to provide the critical support Ukraine needs to defend itself and deter Russian aggression today, while imposing real costs on the Kremlin for its ongoing and potential future aggression against Ukraine. Lankford introduced the Belarus Aggression Accountability Act to deter Belarus from allowing Russia to use its territory to invade Ukraine. Lankford’s bill would sanction Belarus or any country that aids Russia’s ongoing, unprovoked aggression toward the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Lankford supported legislation to impose US sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea.

Excerpt

On Lankford’s push for sanctions on Russia and any nation that helps them

While a lot of people have been focusing on Russia, rightly so—these are Russian troops that are moving into eastern Ukraine even right now—and if they are planning to be able to move in on Kyiv from the north, that’s through Belarus. That’s Belarus facilitating it. Belarus right now is doing joint exercises with the Russians. They are preparing the way for the Russians to be able to move in. They should face the same kind of sanctions that Russia is facing, even if their troops don’t cross the border. They’re still facilitating the process.

On Vladimir Putin’s intentions for the region

We can clearly see his intention is to be able to take over all of eastern Ukraine and to make what they have tried to assume, the fact that they’ll take this over, simply by saying, ‘They speak Russian, so they should be in the Russian area.’ This would be like Mexico saying parts of southern Texas speak Spanish, and so we’re just going to take those parts over. That’s not how it works, these are internationally recognized borders. And they can’t just move into to be able to do that. Now, how far he continues to go—our assumption is, if the Ukrainians push back and attack, which they should obviously respond to be able to protect their country, then Russia will then move into the rest of the country and say, ‘The Ukrainians provoked us as we’re trying to protect other Russians.’

###