Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., fully supports The Pentagon initiative of training 90-100 Ukrainian soldiers at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, with a special emphasis on teaching the troops how to operate sophisticated air-defense systems provided by the U.S. military.
From Mullin's perspective, he would rather have the Ukrainians training on American soil, as opposed to placing U.S. military instructors "in harm's way" while conducting training exercises in Ukraine — or some other neighboring country.
"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a bully, and he's going to continue to do that," Mullin told Newsmax Tuesday evening, while appearing on "The Record with Greta Van Susteren."
For the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, "Putin has this vision of bringing the old Soviet Union back together. And he's taken away what little democracy [Russia] had and moving them strong into a communist country," said Mullin, who made the transition from the House to U.S. Senate earlier this week. "Who's fighting on that front line now? It's Ukraine. ... I don't think we need to be on the front line ... our training [at Fort Sill] is the best."
Over the last 10-plus months, Mullin noted how Putin has lodged veiled threats of a nuclear war, put the NATO consortium "on notice," and bullied Russia's neighbors in Eastern Europe with promises of energy blackouts. The Oklahoma senator then likened Putin to a "caged dog that's been cornered."
Putin's "behavior isn't going to change. He got bad information on [the Ukraine war]. He thought this would be his 'Desert Storm' moment," said Mullin, while adding that now, nearly one full year into a war that's seemingly nowhere, Putin's "looking for a way out."
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