Routinely calling Putin a thug and a murderer, McCain was relentless about the need to supply Ukraine with the military hardware it needed to protect itself from Russia./Mark Wilson/Getty
By Dan Nowicki | Arizona Republic
Sen. John McCain saw it coming.
For years, McCain, R-Ariz., sounded the alarm about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression toward Ukraine and would not have been surprised to see the full-fledged Russian invasion that is now unfolding.
Routinely calling Putin a thug and a murderer, McCain was relentless about the need to supply Ukraine with the military hardware it needed to protect itself from Russia. He often blasted Russia for its March 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, for supporting separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and for fomenting internal strife in the country.
“One of my biggest disappointments is, of course, our failure to give Ukraine weapons with which to defend themselves while their country is being dismembered by Vladimir Putin,” McCain told The Arizona Republic in 2014.
History would judge the United States “very harshly” for failing to protect people “who are victims of the most heinous crimes,” he said.
McCain gained a reputation around the world as one of Putin’s greatest antagonists, so much so that Russia officially sanctioned him in March 2014. A Kremlin spokesperson in 2017 said McCain was known for his “maniacal hatred towards our country.” And during McCain’s sixth and final Senate race in 2016, Russian trolls spread baseless conspiracy theories and insults on social media as part of a propaganda effort to smear him as a “traitor” or “RINO,” or Republican In Name Only.
In Ukraine, McCain is revered.
