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Sen. John McCain on Thursday chided Western leaders while on foreign travel in the Ukraine for refusing to describe Russia’s occupation of the country as an ‘invasion.’

‘If we in the West cannot say clearly that what [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine constitutes an invasion of a sovereign country . . .then we are living in Putin’s world,’ he remarked during a press conference in the country’s capitol city, Kyiv.

‘Just as an invasion is an invasion, our world either has rules, or it does not,’ he continued.

McCain, a Republican, did not call out U.S. President Barack Obama by name in his statement but the Democratic president is among the world leaders who have shied away from using the term ‘invasion’ to characterize a deployment of 1,000 Russian troops to Ukraine last week.

Sen. John McCain said at a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine today, that ‘if we in the West cannot say clearly that what [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine constitutes an invasion of a sovereign country . . .then we are living in Putin’s world’

In a forceful speech delivered from Estonia, a former Soviet territory that now shares a border with Russia, President Obama told Baltic leaders on Wednesday that ‘borders can’t be redrawn at the barrel of a gun’ and the sovereignty of a country ‘can’t simply be taken away by brute force.’

‘We will not accept Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea or any part of Ukraine,’ he promised them.

In a joint op-ed with British Prime Minister David Cameron that was published today in The Times of London, Obama reiterated his dissatisfaction with country’s actions.

‘Russia
has ripped up the rulebook,’ Obama and Cameron wrote.

The U.S. and British leaders have declined to define the Russian deployment as an ‘invasion’ – even as a top Ukrainian military official warned that it was just that – preferring instead to call it an ‘incursion.’

Obama administration officials have said that it shouldn’t matter what they call the situation in the Ukraine.

‘Whatever it is called,’ State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN, ‘it doesn’t change the options that where — the
United States is considering, in conjunction with Europe, in conjunction
with our counterparts around the world.’

Senator McCain traveled to Ukraine this week for the fourth time in the past year as President Obama and European heads of state met in Wales to discuss the crisis in Ukraine during a a two-day gathering of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

McCain, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in his statement he came back to besieged country ‘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,’ he said, ‘and whether a world based on these principles will endure or not.’

The Arizona lawmaker said that if Putin can invade a 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?’ he added.

McCain argued that Putin wouldn’t have violated international norms if he didn’t think he could get away with it.

‘The real provocation for Putin has been the perception of Western weakness,’ he said.

‘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.’

The elder statesman had already called on the White House on Sunday to provide weapons and intelligence to Ukraine so it can defend itself and he reiterated his support for military assistance today. He also claimed the U.S. needs to place ‘truly crushing sanctions’ on Russia if it wants to shut down Putin’s offensive.

‘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,’ the five-term Senator and former prisoner of war cautioned.

‘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.’

McCain is also the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Mendez, a Democrat, has been lobbying the Obama administration to provide more substantial assistance to Ukraine as well.

‘We should provide the Ukrainians with the type of defensive weapons that will impose a cost upon Putin for further aggression,’ he said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union news program.

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