In a contentious exchange at a congressional hearing Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that U.S. support for Ukraine to join NATO contributed to Russia’s decision to invade. Blinken vehemently objected to Paul’s remarks, which were also criticized by Russia experts.

Paul, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker and longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, said that both Republican and Democratic administrations had been “agitating” for Ukraine to join the security bloc — an outcome that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a red line.

“While there is no justification for Putin’s war on Ukraine, it does not follow that there is no explanation for the invasion,” Paul told Blinken during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “You could also argue that the countries that it has attacked were … part of the Soviet Union,” the senator said.

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