“I just want him to go…I wish somebody had taken [former Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler out in the ’30s,” Graham added, calling Putin a “war criminal” and “not a legitimate leader.” He said the Russian people need to “rise up and end this reign of terror.”

Speaking to Fox News Sunday this weekend, Graham again asserted his view that Putin’s removal from power would be the best case scenario. “Putin must go,” he declared.

“If you don’t understand this, that if Putin’s still standing after all of this, then the world’s going to be a very dark place,” the GOP senator warned. “China’s going to get the wrong signal and we’ll have a mess on our hands in Europe for decades to come. So let’s take out Putin by helping Ukraine.”