Marco Rubio: Ukraine must make concessions to end war with Russia

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, said “there will have to be concessions made” by Ukraine to end the ongoing war with Russia.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment over email.
Why It Matters
The Russian and Ukrainian war recently passed the grim milestone of 1,000 days of conflict. Russia’s growing military presence started in Ukraine in late 2021. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief said his country’s forces have confronted the Russians along a 1,000-kilometer front for the same number of days. Russia made significant advances in several parts of the frontline through the end of 2024, but the territorial gains are coming at an increasingly painful cost. One estimate suggests that both sides combined have reached over one million casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on NATO allies to deploy troops in his country to help with the war effort last week.
What To Know
During his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, Rubio discussed the difficulties of a peace deal, noting that significant efforts will be needed to end the Russia and Ukraine war.
New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen asked Rubio about his views on Ukraine, how they have “developed” and what “you think is important for us to make sure there’s the strongest possible negotiating position.”
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
“I think it should be the official position of the United States that this war should be brought to an end,” Rubio said. “This war has to end, and I think it should be official policy of the United States that we want to see it end. What that master plan looks like is going to be hard work. This is not going to be an easy endeavor but it’s going to require both diplomacy, and my hope is that it can begin with some cease-fire and in order to obtain objectives with war like the one in Ukraine, it is important for everyone to be realistic. There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation but also by the Ukrainians.”
Rubio said that the objective of creating a cease-fire is impossible “unless both sides have leverage.”
Rubio also noted that Trump said in an interview about a year ago that he wants “the dying to stop.”
“Frankly, I don’t know how anyone can say they don’t,” Rubio said, adding that President Joe Biden’s administration never “clearly delineated that the end goal” was conflict resolution.
He also added that the energy and infrastructure are “being decimated in ways that are going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild over the next decades.”
What People Are Saying
Senator Marco Rubio: “The truth of the matter is that in this conflict, there’s no way Russia takes all of Ukraine. The Ukrainians are too brave and fight too hard and the country is too big. That’s not going to happen. 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 back to all the way they were on the eve of the invasion, just on the size dynamic.”
President-elect Donald Trump in September: “I also have a very good relationship as you know with President Putin and I think if we win [the election] we’re going to get it resolved very quickly.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a congratulatory statement to President-elect Donald Trump: “He is strong…He is young…and his brains work.”
What’s Next
On January 13, Florida Representative Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, spoke about the president-elect’s plans to speak with Putin “in the coming days and weeks,” in an interview on ABC News.
Trump and Putin’s initial call before setting up peace negotiation meetings may dictate how talks with Ukraine play out, depending on how they go and where the two leaders’ relationship stands.