Robert Wilkie, former secretary of Veterans Affairs, told Newsmax on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking the war in Ukraine “to civilians” and warned that he cannot be stopped without “overwhelming force.”
President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a social media statement condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin over recent Russian airstrikes against Ukraine that killed at least a dozen people.
Later on Sunday, Russia launched the largest assault with drones and missiles against Ukraine since the invasion began, using more than 350 explosive drones and at least nine cruise missiles in an overnight attack.
Wilkie said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” that the ongoing attack “is following an ancient Russian pattern. Whenever they get involved in conflict, they target civilians. Putin’s army is exhausted on the battlefield. He’s lost between 200 and 300,000 dead, 900,000 total casualties, so now he’s taking the war to civilians.”
He added, “We shouldn’t be surprised,” calling Putin “a KGB killer,” in reference to his past with the Soviet Union’s security agency.
Putin “was raised in that world,” Wilkie said, pointing to “all of the so-called Putin opponents and some Putin friends who mysteriously fall off ledges of hospitals five, 10 stories up, I think there have been 20 something in just in the last year.”
Wilkie said, “This is who this guy is. He’s a gangster. And … he will not stop until he’s presented with overwhelming force.”
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