Rubio on war in Ukraine: This is protracted conflict, it needs to end in negotiations and 'both sides going to give something up'
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Russian war in Ukraine must end in negotiations, and in such negotiations, where both sides must give up something. He said this in an interview with journalist Megan Kelly.
"The president's [Trump] point of view is this: this is a protracted conflict, and it needs to end. Now it needs to enter any negotiations. In any negotiations, both sides are going to give something up. I am not going to pre-negotiate. I mean that is going to be the work of hard diplomacy which is what we used to do in the world in the past and we were realistic about it. Both sides in a negotiation have to give something, and this will take time," Rubio said.
According to Rubio, the war in Ukraine must end in a way that will lead to a lasting peace, because "the situation is unsustainable on all sides." He said that in the end, "it is unsustainable even for Russia - they are paying a big price for this in their own economy, their inflation rate and the like." "I think even a growing number of Democrats would now acknowledge that what we have been funding is a stalemate, a protracted conflict, and maybe even worse than a stalemate - one in incrementally Ukraine is being destroyed and losing more and more territory. So this conflict needs to end," the U.S. Secretary of State said.
He said the Trump team believes that what Putin did is terrible, "he invaded a country, atrocities he is committed, he did horrible things." But, according to Rubio, "what the dishonesty that has existed, that we somehow led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not just defeat Russia, but destroy them, push them all the way back to what the world looked like it did in 2012 or 2014, before the Russians took Crimea and the like. And as a result, what they have been asking for the last year and a half is to fund a stalemate, a protracted stalemate in which human suffering continues," Rubio said. Commenting on the willingness of the parties to negotiate, Rubio said that "there is a public side of the issue and there is a private side."
"What you see portrayed publicly in conversations and what leaders say a lot of it is speaking they have domestic politics and political considerations. Even Vladimir Putin, who controls media, still has to care about what public opinion is in Russia, and his image and what his entire personality is built around," Rubio noted.
Last week, speaking via videoconference at the Davos Economic Forum, President Trump said he was seeking a meeting with the Russian president to end the war in Ukraine. Trump had also previously called on Russia to negotiate or face "taxes, tariffs, and sanctions" on Russian goods.