Russia’s nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine has become a “war of attrition” and a “stalemate” that must be ended, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Rubio broke from the passive stance of the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden, which has said it was up to Kyiv to decide under what terms it would be open to peace talks with Moscow. In the meantime, the U.S., along with its European allies, has continued to send billions of dollars of armaments to Ukraine to continue the fight.
Rubio instead said the first step in ending the war should be a ceasefire that halts ground fighting, which has for more than a year mostly occurred in eastern Ukraine. However, ongoing fighting is also raging in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine captured in August, even as Moscow has attempted to retake it with the help of North Korean troops.
Both countries also target each other daily with aerial strikes, drones and missiles, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Russian attacks, along with vast numbers of both countries’ troops.
“This war has to end,” he said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rubio called the destruction in Ukraine “extraordinary,” saying it will “take a generation to rebuild.”
But even as he argued for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Rubio said it was unlikely that there would be much change in the current battle lines. Russia currently holds about a fifth of the internationally recognized Ukrainian land mass.
“The truth of the matter is that in this conflict, there is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine,” Rubio said. “It’s also unrealistic to believe that somehow, a nation the size of Ukraine, no matter how incompetent and no matter how much damage the Russian Federation has suffered as a result of this invasion, there’s no way Ukraine is also going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.”
Democrats, and some Republicans on the committee, continued to voice their support for more military aid to Ukraine, saying it was important to give Kyiv leverage in any eventual peace talks with Moscow.
But Rubio said that one of Ukraine’s key problems was not a shortage of ammunition or money but its inability to train and recruit enough troops.
“The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they’re running out of money, [it] is that they’re running out of Ukrainians,” he said.
Trump has voiced skepticism of continued U.S. military support for Kyiv and repeatedly vowed that he would end the war before he assumed the presidency on Jan. 20.
In recent days, his aides have said the new timeline is ending the war in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be by the end of April.
On the battlefront, officials in western Ukraine said Wednesday that a Russian missile attack hit critical infrastructure facilities in the Lviv region, part of a series of attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said included more than 40 missiles and 70 drones.
Zelenskyy said Russia’s targets included “gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people,” but that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 30 of the missiles.
“Thanks to our air defense forces and all involved units, we’ve managed to maintain the functionality of our energy system,” Zelenskyy said. “However, we must continue strengthening the capabilities of Ukraine’s air shield. Promises made by partners at the NATO summit in Washington and within the Ramstein format still remain partially unfulfilled.”
Ukraine’s military issued air alerts for regions across the country Wednesday, while the national power grid operator instituted power cuts in six regions.
Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked overnight with drones and missiles, with fragments from destroyed drones damaging two houses.
In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian attacks included artillery, drones and missiles that damaged an industrial site.
Kirovohrad Governor Andriy Raikovich reported on Telegram what he described as a massive Russian drone attack that damaged several residential buildings.
Officials in the Rivne region also said Russian missiles targeted the area overnight.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod area and another drone over the Tambov region.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian attacks injured one person, while Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov reported damage to a house.
Some information for this story came from Reuters.
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