Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said he can "understand" Russian President Vladimir Putin's justification for invading Ukraine and claimed that the United States "forced this issue" by "forcing NATO all the way to Eastern Europe."
Tuberville also renewed his call for negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"I feel sorry for Ukraine, but we forced this issue," Tuberville said Monday on "The Jeff Poor Show," a talk radio program in Mobile, Alabama.
Tuberville cited Putin's recent interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in which Putin called for the U.S. to negotiate with Russia rather than supply weapons or aid to Ukraine, and defended the invasion by complaining that NATO continued to "expand eastward" despite promising not to.
"We kept forcing NATO all the way to Eastern Europe," Tuberville said. "And Putin just got tired of it. He said, 'Listen, I do not want missiles on my border from the United States of America.' It would be like Russia coming to Mexico and putting missiles in Mexico. I understand what he is talking about."
Tuberville said "there should have been negotiations" to end the war in Ukraine and blamed the Biden administration and congressional leaders for having "no plan."
"This administration does not know how to negotiate. Antony Blinken, our secretary of state — my gosh, was that the best we've got? And there's hundreds of thousands of people killed over this," Tuberville said.