Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., does a tv interview earlier than the beginning of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s election night time rally on Nov. 2, 2021 in McLean, Va.
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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., does a tv interview earlier than the beginning of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s election night time rally on Nov. 2, 2021 in McLean, Va.
Drew Angerer/Getty Pictures
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., is cautioning {that a} main cyberattack towards Ukraine may have attainable ripple results on close by NATO members – and power NATO allies to come back to their protection.
Warner made the feedback Thursday afternoon in an interview on NPR’s All Issues Thought of.
“Should you shut down Polish hospitals as a result of they can not get energy to deal with their folks, you are quickly approaching what may very well be considered as an Article 5 violation of NATO, which principally says in the event you assault one NATO nation – and Poland is a NATO nation – the entire remaining 29 nations want to come back to their help,” he mentioned. “We’re in an uncharted territory.”
Warner mentioned he believed the Ukrainian folks would proceed to battle again towards the Russian invasion and type an “insurgency,” which might be tougher for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces to counter.
“It is once more one factor to knock out a authorities. It is one other factor to battle an insurgency led by the Ukrainian folks throughout all of this captured territory,” he mentioned.
Warner mentioned the U.S. must assist the insurgency however do it in a means that will keep away from a direct battle with Russia.
“We have managed to maintain the peace for 80 years. Vladimir Putin has violated that. He has to pay a worth. However we do not wish to default this to [a] NATO-Russia battle,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, Warner mentioned that publicizing U.S. intelligence about Russia’s plans in Ukraine – similar to the truth that Putin meant to make use of a false flag operation to justify an invasion of Ukraine – helped unite allies towards the Kremlin.
“We now haven’t solely America and NATO, we’ve international locations like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia all weighing in with sanctions, as nicely,” Warner mentioned. “Matter of reality, the one person who I’ve heard that is come to Putin’s protection within the final 72 hours has been the previous president of the USA, which is fairly beautiful in my thoughts.”
