U.S. Congressman Scott DesJarlais Talks Russia Attack on Ukraine and Whether or Not Putin Fears Sanctions

Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed U.S. Congressman Scott DeJarlais (R-TN-04) to the newsmaker line to weigh in on Russia’s attack on Ukraine early Thursday morning and speculated whether or not Putin would be intimidated by sanctions.

Leahy: On our newsmaker line now, Congressman Scott DesJarlais, who represents the 4th Congressional District of Tennessee. Welcome, Congressman DesJarlais.

DesJarlais: Good morning, Michael.

Leahy: Well, it’s not really a good morning, is it, because the Russians are invading Ukraine. What’s your take on what’s going on right now? What should the American response be?

DesJarlais: It should have been proactive, not reactive. So that’s a lost opportunity. It’s not like we haven’t seen this coming. And I think that it’s going to be much worse because of the slow and ineffective actions of the Biden administration. I visited Ukraine in 2017 in Kiev and Eastern Ukraine, and visited the place where we’re training.

And so we’ve literally been watching this since Obama and Biden let Russia take Crimea in 2014. So it’s unfortunate that we’re having this talk this morning because this was probably preventable with tougher sanctions starting with the Nordstream Two and making this painful for Russia to even think about doing it.

Now we’re having to deal with them after it’s happening. And I think it’s going to get much worse from the nature of the shelling and bombing overnight throughout the country. And the capital city would indicate that possibly the Russians will be in Kiev probably by the weekend the way it looks.

Leahy: And here’s a question. If they’re in K-I-E-V but pronounced Keev, is that right? The capital of Ukraine.

DesJarlais: It’s Kiev, mmm-hmm.

Leahy: And you’ve been there, right?

DesJarlais: Yes.

Leahy: To the people there, when you talk to them in 2017, what is their attitude towards the Russian aggression in general and the claims that Russia has on Ukraine? What do Ukrainians think about it?

DesJarlais: I think that they had a bit of a false sense of security dating back to the ’90s, when they agreed to give up their nuclear arms in return for protection from countries like the United States and European Nations. So they put themselves in a tough spot.

I think they’re having a little regret, buyers remorse. We stopped, met, and had dinner with many of their members of Parliament. And of course, this is four or five years ago, but I don’t know that they thought it was going to come to this.

We visited countries like Estonia, Poland, Romania, and some of our NATO allies there and they were very acutely aware of a potential Russian invasion. And it was forefront in their mind and they took it very seriously.

And they appreciated our friendship, especially with Poland, Estonia, and in those countries. They really liked us there. Sometimes you go to foreign countries and they are polite to you, but they really liked having us there. (unintelligible)

They’d love to be a member of NATO, but obviously, Russia was very opposed to that. (unintelligible) I think President Xi and China have watched this very closely. We know he has potential for Taiwan, and I just hope this doesn’t become a domino effect.

The people of Ukraine, I think are in shock this morning. Maybe they thought this never really would happen. Maybe European allies would step up, the United States would step up, and Russia wouldn’t have the courage and be emboldened.

Leahy: Does Ukraine have any military capability to push back against the Russian invasion, and would they intend to exercise that capability?

DesJarlais: Their will to fight is going to be interesting. There was a member of Parliament interviewed during the night. I don’t recall if this is one that I met with or not, but they act like they will fight, fight hard, and fight for a long time.

They certainly do not have a military capability that can slow the Russians … The body count did get high in a hurry. And I’m talking thousands, if not tens of thousands if Ukraine decides to engage if the Russians move forward.

The problem is they don’t have any air superiority, so Russia can pretty much bomb at will and they can really intimidate and overwhelm them.

So it’ll be interesting to see if the Ukrainians resolve to fight. They’ve got amphibious assaults coming from the south or they’re coming in from the north. There were reports they actually came in from Belarus, but really all sides.

They have got around 200,000 battle-ready troops against Ukraine who can put up a little bit of resistance. But then Russia will take casualties as well if they get into that type of ground war.

You saw Russia through the night taking on command and control centers. And basically with cyber, they will essentially blind the Ukrainians. So it’ll be ugly fighting.

I’m guessing Ukraine will take 10-to-one casualties over Russia. So we’ll just see what the will to fight is. I hope this doesn’t happen, but I’m afraid it could get really bloody in a hurry.

Leahy: So if it gets bloody, I mean, the most likely outcome is how long would it take for the dominant Russian military power to subjugate all of Ukraine, even if it gets bloody?

DesJarlais: I mean, less than a week. If they want to get serious about it and move in, Russia’s military might is similar to the United States, and Ukraine is maybe a tenth of that.

So if you remember, in 1991 with Desert Storm, we took a month basically carpet-bombing, aerial-bombing Iraq, and by the time we sent ground troops people were just lining up to surrender, and Russia could do that same type of thing if they chose to.

I don’t know that it would be a war quite on that scale. But no, I mean, Ukraine can only resist really, for a few days if they get an all-out assault.

Leahy: Let’s talk about, let’s say it goes forward, as most people would think, and Russia, within two weeks or a month, controls all of Ukraine. Does Russia stop at Ukraine?

DesJarlais: That’s the big question. And that’s what’s got our NATO allies and us on edge. And we are bolstering troops along with those Eastern countries that I mentioned. And my sense right now is that would not be Putin’s immediate attention.

Of course, he’s going to see how he gets away with this. And I think the president plans to impose tougher sanctions today. Again, that’s something that could have been done.

Leahy: That shaking of the boots you hear, right, in the boots, that’s not Putin worried at all about any sanctions, is it?

DesJarlais: It sounds like he’s built up a war chest. Obviously, the Nordstream is key, because Russia sells oil and that’s how they would fund this operation. But the big question is, does he have bigger plans? Is he trying to reunite the Soviet Union and go into other countries, Belarus?

I would be curious if they launched an attack from there. I remember when we visited, there were countries that were more friendly towards Russia, like I think in Ukraine, it seemed like there was about 20 percent of the Russian population out of their 40 million people. So they’ve kind of got an army within already. And like I said, I think that they could occupy by Saturday if they choose to do that.

Listen to the full interview here:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.