Marie Yovanovitch

I think this is absolutely essential for all government agencies, because we are the continuity of government and we need to be able to serve every president that`s elected in a nonpartisan way.

I think he underestimated the resolve of the West and our willingness to stand united with Ukraine.

He's gone from being a comedian, to being a president to being a war hero, a world leader like I have not seen, you know, perhaps since World War II.

I think that what we're seeing now is about -- in a certain sense, it's about Russia's security, but it is about many other things, including Putin's obsession with Ukraine, his belief that it's not a real country, his desire to recreate…

I think that President Putin was getting what he needed out of the Trump administration.

I think that what we're seeing now is about... tearing down the international order that has served us so well since World War II.

I think that he, frankly, didn't really think that much about Ukraine, but he thought a lot about Russia as a great power. And he sort of accepted, I think, Putin's view of Ukraine is not really being a real country.

It was quite clear that he felt that NATO was not a good institution, that the other allies were taking the U.S. for a ride, and that we were supporting them in ways that we shouldn't be.

It is really horrifying. And I think that it's important that we not allow Putin to set the conditions for this war.

Supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do. If Russia prevails, and Ukraine falls to Russian dominion, we can expect to see other attempts by Russia to expand its territory and its influence.

I have heard people close to the president from his administration saying that, if he had had a second term, he would no doubt have pulled the U.S. out of NATO.

I think that gave Vladimir Putin a lot of encouragement that the United States was, you know, certainly not the Trump administration was going to be supporting Ukraine.