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, Kiev. '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.
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McCain did not call President Obama out by name, but Obama is one of the world leaders refusing to describe the deployment as an 'invasion'
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If we 'cannot say clearly' that what Vladimir Putin is doing is an invasion, McCain said, 'then we are living in Putin's world'
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The Republican lawmaker said that if the West didn't stop Putin, the leaders of other countries emboldened to invade sovereign territories
'The real provocation for Putin has been the perception of @placeholder weakness,' he said.