WASHINGTON — With more than 100,000 Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s border, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Gregory Meeks offered a sobering observation Monday: “No one knows what [Vladimir] Putin is going to do.”

“I don’t think Putin knows what he’s going to do yet,” he continued, referring to the Russian president and the possibility of a Russian invasion.

Meeks, a Democrat representing New York, recently returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials. The stated goal: underscore the support of the U.S. and its allies.

“One of the things that I don't think that Putin has counted on was that unity,” Meeks said.

Despite the coalition of support, however, Zelensky has at times in recent days been critical of the U.S. and other western nations, pushing back on their dire warnings about the threat of an invasion.

“He doesn't want to create a panic of individuals in the Ukraine,” Meeks said, when asked about Zelensky’s comments. “I understand that, I got it.”

Reflecting on his time on the ground in the country, Meeks said one big thing stood out to him: Ukraine is a different place than it was eight years ago. That is the last time Putin attacked, invading the Crimean Peninsula.

“In 2014, I think that the people of Ukraine was not full of the nationalism about being Ukrainian as they are right now,” Meeks said.

On Capitol Hill, congressional lawmakers are working on a legislative response, including the threat of new sanctions against Russia - which Meeks described as sanctions like Putin has “never seen before.”

While top Senators work to finalize their plan, Meeks said talks between him and the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs panel are on the five yard line.

“I think it's a matter of weeks, at most, to get some kind of agreement that we can move on,” he said.