Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine last week, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) said he was keeping a close eye on the situation there.
Fleischmann spoke with The Advocate & Democrat on Wednesday, Feb. 26, hours before Russian troops poured into the former Soviet country.
“I traveled a couple years ago to Kyiv in Ukraine and to the country of Georgia, which is … occupied by the Russians,” Fleischmann said, noting that about 20% of Georgia is under Russian control. “I had conversations with former Prime Minister (Petro) Poroshenko. I’ve been following this very, very closely. This is a very dangerous situation.”
Prior to the invasion, Putin argued that Ukraine shouldn’t have become a sovereign nation and there has been speculation that he may want to recreate the former Soviet Union.
“Putin is wrong, the Russians are wrong,” Fleischmann said. “It is going to be met extremely harshly, not only by the U.S. but by the international community.”
Speaking of the response by western countries prior to the Russian invasion, Fleischmann said there were some good and bad elements to it.
“It’s been a varied response,” he said. “I would applaud the Germans who stood up and basically stopped the work on the NordStream pipeline. That shows they took action to condemn Putin’s aggression, which is clearly to their own detriment.”
The NordStream 2 pipeline is an oil connection between Russia and Germany that saw sanctions holding it up dropped by Germany and America earlier this year, but Putin’s invasion led to work on it being stopped again.
“I do think President (Joe) Biden has taken a good first step with sanctions, but I think he needs to be even more clear in his resolve that an invasion will not be tolerated in any way, shape or form,” Fleischmann said.
After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden announced further economic sanctions against the aggressor country on Thursday and more have been added on since then.
The local representative added that he’s been happy to see other western countries support the idea of Ukraine remaining free.
“I think the majority of the international community has been steadfast in support of the sovereignty of Ukraine and to oppose Russian aggression in Ukraine or anywhere else,” Fleischmann said.
There have been concerns voiced by many, including Biden on Thursday, about the possibility of Putin desiring to remake the fallen Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Fleischmann didn’t dismiss that possibility on Wednesday.
“Anytime you see one nation invade another nation and infringe upon that nation’s sovereignty, there can be potentially very devastating ripple effects,” he said. “Obviously the economic sanctions are punitive in nature and work against Russia, but it could be potentially destabilizing in the region and internationally …”
In that vein, Fleischmann referenced the two previous world wars as what can happen when a decision begins rippling.
“Historically, I would point to the start of World War I when the archduke was assassinated and that led to an escalation of tensions that, over time, plunged the world into World War I,” he explained. “In World War II, Adolf Hitler identified Germans in the Sudentenland in Czechoslovakia and used that, if you will, as an excuse to go in there and Neville Chamberlain appeased that aggression, which ultimately led to the Nazis being much more aggressive and starting World War II.”
While some may wonder why an invasion in Ukraine — a country nearly 6,000 miles away from the United States — is relevant to Americans, Fleischmann highlighted not only the potential ripple effects, but the economic impact the fall of Ukraine could have here.
“Ukraine produces a lot of agricultural and other products that are sold as commodities on the world market,” he said. “It’s a large country, it’s a sovereign country, and if there is a disruption in that — and conversely if the Russian supply of oil is curtailed, Russia is a very large producer of oil and natural gas — it will affect world commodity prices which will ultimately lead to higher prices in America and across the world.”