Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would not have expected Russian President Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine based on his past interactions with the leader.
“I don’t know that the person is the same as the person who is now leading this charge,” Obama said, referring to Putin, during an event hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and The Atlantic.
“For him to bet the farm this way? I would not have predicted it from five years ago,” he added.
Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine at the end of February, leading to the death of thousands Ukrainians and Russian troops.
The international community has responded by equipping Ukraine with weapons and billions of dollars in aid while sanctioning the Russian economy and oligarchs.
Obama was president when Russia first invaded Crimea and overtook the region in 2014.
He said during the event Wednesday he “has been encouraged” by the actions taken by Western democracies, saying it was difficult to get some countries to respond to Russia’s attack eight years ago.
“In 2014, I often had to drag them kicking and screaming to respond in ways that we would have wanted to see,” he said.
Obama has repeatedly condemned the attacks on Ukraine.
“Russia did so not because Ukraine posed a threat to Russia, but because the people of Ukraine chose a path of sovereignty, self-determination, and democracy,” Obama said soon after the invasion began.
“For exercising rights that should be available to all people and nations, Ukrainians now face a brutal onslaught that is killing innocents and displacing untold numbers of men, women and children.”
Though Russian forces have withdrawn from areas near Kyiv, Ukraine is bracing for an invasion in the country’s east.
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