US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview published on Thursday, the 30th of January, condemned Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, but said it was “dishonest” to claim that Kyiv was capable of destroying Russia on the battlefield and returning to the pre-2014 situation, reports The Kyiv Independent.
He acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had committed “atrocities” and “terrible things” by invading Ukraine but expressed doubts about Kyiv’s chances of a full military victory.
“But what is dishonest is that somehow we have led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not only to defeat Russia, but to destroy (Putin), to force him back to what the world looked like in 2012 or 2014, before the Russians took Crimea,” Rubio said on the Megyn Kelly Show.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the Biden administration for providing massive aid to Ukraine and has pledged to reach a swift peace settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
Trump’s Secretary of State, echoing this view, said that the US had “funded a stalemate” in a war that “set (Ukraine) back 100 years” and called for a swift resolution.
“The energy grid is being destroyed. Someone will have to pay for the reconstruction. And how many Ukrainians have left Ukraine (and live) in other countries? They may never come back,” Rubio said.
Russia has continuously launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the war, causing blackouts. More than six million Ukrainians have fled the country since the full-scale invasion.
“The future of the country depends on it,” the US official added. Rubio reiterated his previous statements that “both sides of the conflict will have to make compromises” for the talks to succeed.
Earlier this month, Rubio suspended almost all foreign aid provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), posing a significant challenge to various Ukrainian civilian programmes that depend on US support, including in the energy sector.
Kyiv and the Pentagon stated that this order does not affect US military support to Ukraine.
Criticising the previous Biden administration, Rubio also suggested that the US “chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan” in 2021 was a signal to Putin that “America is actually in decline, or distracted”, leading to the decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.