Both sides pay terrible price in war, both must give in – US secretary of state says
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reiterated that the war in Ukraine should end in negotiations and both sides will have to make concessions.
Rubio pointed out in a conversation with journalist Megyn Kelly that the situation has become a protracted war and is getting even worse as Ukraine continues to lose territory, and suggested that even Democrats should agree with this assessment.
He stressed that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin's actions are terrible, though he believes that the US and the West also made mistakes in the war.
"The dishonesty that has existed is that we somehow led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not just to defeat Russia but to push them all the way back to what the world looked like in 2012 or 2014, before the Russians took Crimea," Rubio said.
However, in the end, he said, everything has turned into a situation where the last year and a half has been about financing a protracted war.
"Both sides are paying a heavy price for this [war], both sides have an incentive for this conflict to end... it's not going to end with the maximalist goals of either side, and there's going to have to be a lot of hard work done. And I think only the United States, under the leadership of President Trump, can make that possible.
It won't be easy and it will take some time, but it's something I know he's strongly committed to seeing happen," Rubio said.
During their first conversation on Tuesday, 28 January, EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas and Rubio discussed the need to continue to put pressure on Russia to achieve peace in Ukraine.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Rubio stated that any agreement to end the war in Ukraine would require concessions from both Moscow and Kyiv. He suggested that Ukraine would need to abandon its aim of reclaiming all the territory Russia has seized over the past decade.
Rubio called the key mission of the US Department of State "the advancement of our national interests".