As potential peace negotiations continue this week between Russia and Ukraine, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee said he doesn’t believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about stopping the war.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) joined WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program” on Tuesday to point out why he’s not optimistic about peace coming to Ukraine any time soon.

“I think that Putin is just playing games,” Rogers lamented. “I don’t think he’s planning any serious peace negotiations. I think that he’s going to keep trying to bomb Kyiv into submission and that we’re going to see a long insurgency campaign after this, so I’m not optimistic about any peace talks.”

Rogers reiterated that he doesn’t believe Putin is negotiating in good faith.

“I don’t think Putin has any intention of negotiating,” Rogers argued. “I think he wants to be vindicated in taking all of Ukraine or at least going back to the old Soviet border in the western part of Ukraine and anything less than that, and installing a puppet government, anything less than that he’s going to view as a failure and I don’t think he sees failure as an option.”

The congressman also warned that China is watching how the U.S. and the rest of the world is responding to Russia’s aggression.

“The fact that the Chinese President is now threating any country that helps [Taiwan] shows that they’re paying attention to what Putin is doing, ya know Putin threatened any country that helped Ukraine and all of a sudden you saw a bunch of NATO countries, but specifically Poland and the U.S., pull back from giving those MiG jets, so they see a country that’s afraid of threats so now they’re threating. That’s all the more reason to double our efforts because we cannot allow Taiwan to be taken,” he concluded.

Michael Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee