Christian Whiten reacts to Vladimir Putin declaring two regions in eastern Ukraine independent and sending peacekeeping troops to the area.
CHRISTIAN WHITON: It’s certainly not peacekeeping. It’s not really an invasion, or, if it is an invasion it just happened in 2014. These two territories and the region of Donbas, a small part of eastern Ukraine were invaded in 2014 by little green man which was basically Russian army troops, they had taken off insignia but were driving Russian tanks, armored vehicles and two minutes earlier had been in the Russian army, and now they are making it formal.
The messaging has been so weird because it's been so stark, so unconditioned, Biden just saying ‘Putin has made the decision to invade because of our intelligence,’ which certainly has never been wrong in the past. … And now when Putin actually does make a move that deals with something across the border … Biden earlier said that ‘well, there might be a minor incursion, it would be no big deal.’ It just goes to the sort of imprecision and cluelessness Biden has been through all along.