Former Canadian foreign minister denounces Putin as 'war criminal' for invading Ukraine

The Winnipegger who spent more than four years as Canada's top diplomat is anything but diplomatic in his description of Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

"To watch this kind of crushing assault by Putin, frankly, I think that he has got to be charged as a war criminal," said Lloyd Axworthy, who served as minister of foreign affairs between 1996 and 2000 under Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien. 

Russia launched its devastating assault of neighbouring Ukraine on Thursday after Putin's declaration of war. An estimated 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire shook major cities. Reports suggest dozens of people have died so far.

Axworthy has seen Russian meddling into Ukraine's affairs for himself while monitoring the country's 2019 election in an official capacity. 

He remembers a conversation at a Kyiv coffee shop where people were discussing the lengths the Russians were going to, trying turn people against Ukraine. It also showed him the Ukrainian people's dedication in upholding their democracy, he said.

Earlier in Putin's reign, he "started out not as a pleasant person but at least somewhat pragmatic," Axworthy said, but "he's increasingly become delusional and into this whole kind of history of great Russia, how they were responsible for Ukraine," he told CBC Manitoba's Up to Speed host Faith Fundal in an interview Thursday.

"He's now turning a fantasy into propaganda and, as a result, we're all paying a big price for his actions."

Axworthy, who currently chairs the World Refugee and Migration Council, doesn't hesitate when asked the meaning behind Putin's threat that any country's intervention into their war will lead to "consequences you have never seen."

"I don't think there's any confusion, I think he's talking about nuclear weapons," Axworthy said.

It "just shows just how far off the edge of the cliff he's gone," he added, suggesting Putin is living in a "kind of video game world" and is far removed from the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviet Union and United States stepped back from the brink of nuclear conflict.

Axworthy said Putin has never shaken his disgust that the Soviet Union was dissolved, which the Russian president once called one of the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.

"After the last couple weeks, looking at Putin, I think he's a little deranged to begin with, but he came out of a culture of the KGB, which was all imbued with Soviet Union's power and strength," he said.

Putin's actions may classify him as a war criminal, as Axworthy suggested. War crimes, as defined by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, include "wilful killing" and extensive destruction "not justified by military necessity."

Axworthy said a takeover of Ukraine would put Russia within striking distance of NATO countries, such as Poland, Hungary and Romania. He noted NATO countries have an obligation to come to the defence of any members who are attacked.