Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair said the world cannot let Ukraine be "pulled apart in this way," and argued the result of inaction in Syria will pose "long term security consequences" for the US and UK.
"He [Putin] is defined by a sense of Russian nationalism… But the fact is whatever the strength of that feeling you cannot have a situation in which Ukraine is pulled apart in this way," Blair said on CNBC Monday.
"When does something get done about Syria?" host Brian Sullivan asked.
"I think when we realize the consequences of inaction are going to be devastating," Blair responded.
"The toll on the people in Syria is obviously appalling. The numbers of people dead, the millions displaced, the effective disintegration of the country. For example with the US and the UK now our single biggest security worry now are British born people who go and fight so-called jihad in Syria and are going to return to the UK as citizens, battle hardened, battle trained, and angry. It’s not just a question of the humanitarian toll in Syria which is appalling and terrible, it’s the long term security consequences which I think are very serious," Blair added.