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White House Says "Continuation," Murphy Says "War"

Chion Wolf
/
WNPR

As the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues to escalate, Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy wants to call it what it is: a war.

Even though the White House is avoiding the words "war" and "invasion," Murphy told Yahoo News, "By any conventional definition of war, there is war happening between Ukraine and Russia. And it’s been occurring essentially since the invasion of Crimea."

During a press briefing on Thursday, President Barack Obama was asked if he considered Russia's actions an invasion. He instead described them as "a continuation of what's been taking place for months now."

Murphy, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is chair of the Subcommittee on European Affairs, has used stronger language in recent days:

State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is not concerned about what the conflict is called. "It’s a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty," she said in a press briefing Thursday. "It is an issue that regardless of what it’s called, Russia’s actions need to stop. There’s not a legal – there’s no new set of obligations based on that kind of terminology. So we’re just more focused on what they’re doing and what we’re going to do about it." 

Russian president Vladamir Putin denied that Russian troops have entered Ukraine. According to the BBC, "Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the crisis, comparing its siege of two cities held by separatists, Donetsk and Luhansk, to the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany in World War Two."

In light of these escalations, Ukraine's prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his country would "restore its aspirations to become a NATO member."

President Obama said Thursday that although the U.S. does not have treaty obligations with Ukraine, the nations do "stand shoulder to shoulder," but the U.S. is not taking military action against Russia.

Tucker Ives is WNPR's morning news producer.

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