Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) reacted quickly to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russian forces would be starting a “special military operation” into Ukraine, claiming the action is “without justification, without provocation and without honor.” However, Romney also faulted the United States’ foreign policy and handling of Russia’s aggression over the last two decades.
On Wednesday night, The Daily Wire reported that U.S. Senator Marco Rubio announced the “Russian invasion” had begun, a statement confirmed shrotly after by Putin in a nationwide address:
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now underway.
“In the hours to come, Russia will conduct strikes on air defense systems, move to cut off Kyiv from eastern Ukraine, [and] move to cut off Ukraine’s military forces on the line of contact in the east to prevent them from falling back to defend Kyiv,” Rubio added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during a speech that was broadcast during the early morning hours on Thursday that a “special military operation” was underway with the goal of demilitarizing the country. Putin told Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons and go home.
In response, Romney called on the U.S. to react “harshly” while also pointing out how the United States’ lack of action against Russia has emboldened Putin.
“Putin’s Ukraine invasion is the first time in 80 years that a great power has moved to conquer a sovereign nation,” Romney said via Twitter.
“It is without justification, without provocation and without honor. Putin’s impunity predictably follows our tepid response to his previous horrors in Georgia and Crimea, our naive efforts at a one-sided ‘reset,’ and the shortsightedness of ‘America First,’” Romney said, referencing Russian behavior and the United States’ response under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
“The ’80s called’ and we didn’t answer,” Romney also added, referring to Obama’s one-liner during a 2012 presidential debate in which Obama ridiculed Romney for suggesting that Russia was America’s number one geo-political foe.
In the nearly 10 years since, many have said Romney has seemed prescient on that point, while Obama, and his number two in command Joe Biden, have seemed to falter. This week, even CNN’s Chris Cillizza admitted that Romney was right.
“The peril of again looking away from Putin’s tyranny falls not just on the people of the nations he has violated, it falls on America as well. History shows that a tyrant’s appetite for conquest is never satiated,” the Utah senator continued.
“America and our allies must answer the call to protect freedom by subjecting Putin and Russia to the harshest economic penalties, by expelling them from global institutions, and by committing ourselves to the expansion and modernization of our national defense,” Romney declared.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 24, 2022
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