U.S. Senator John McCain has said during a speech at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to strike Ukraine's strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol, adding that the Moldova is also Putin’s possible target, potentially along with the Baltic states and Poland.
A prominent Ukraine supporter, McCain said that the Kremlin was aiming to create a land corridor from Russia to annexed Crimea, thus seizing Mariupol is vital for Russia-backed forces, Ukraine Today reports.
McCain also repeated his call to U.S. President Barack Obama to send defensive weapons to Ukraine.
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