We're facing an unprecedented situation. I'm here and I'm sitting in a parliamentary hearing, and I don't want to say things that are completely phantasmagoric, but basically, we're facing a scenario where Russia may be intent on destroying the Ukrainian state by invading eastern Ukraine. That's the Czechoslovakia scenario in 1938. I'm just pinching myself and looking at developments. This is essentially what could be in the works.
What could western states, including Canada, possibly do? Certainly, the measures have to be out of the ordinary, so extraordinary. I don't have a ready answer to it, but this is an extremely grave situation, a situation where there is only one decision-maker in Russia. We have a president who has absolute power.
Chancellor Merkel from Germany talked to Mr. Putin yesterday and reported that she feels he is disconnected from reality and lives in another world. It's one chancellor talking to a president who is sending an army to a state that is recognized by the international community. That is extremely preoccupying.