Marco Rubio predicts 'there's no way' Russia takes all or even half of Ukraine

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Sunday gave his prediction for how the Russia-Ukraine war may end, stating that it is not the place of the United States to define an end to the war but he knows that it will not end with Russia occupying all of Ukraine or even half of the Eastern European country.

When asked on "Fox News Sunday" about whether the U.S. and other nations should put pressure on Russia and Ukraine to find a solution more than two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, Rubio said, "I’m not going to set parameters on what that looks like. It’s not our place to do that; it’s premature to do that." 

He also said: "Here’s what I do know, there is no way that the Russian Federation takes Ukraine, all of Ukraine, half of Ukraine and that was Putin’s goal from the beginning was to carve it up into half… at least half the country, including Kyiv, that’s not going to happen."

Rubio, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, stressed that it is important to look at what he called the "reality" of Ukraine's size and resources compared to Russia. 

"Ukraine is small compared to Russia in terms of size and its ability to bring scale, its ability to force, conscript people," he said. "I’m just being honest."

Ultimately when the war ends, neither Russia nor Ukraine will have an ideal victory, he also said.

"Neither side is going to be able to achieve victory as defined in the most idealistic terms," the senator said. "So then the question becomes if in fact, there’s going to be a negotiated settlement, who’s going to have the leverage here? Is it going to be Putin or is it going to be Ukraine, and I want Ukraine to have the most amount of leverage possible when the time comes for those conversations to happen."

Rubio also said that he believes the U.S. should send aid to Ukraine, but it can only be done after the southern border with Mexico is secured. 

"I believe we should help Ukraine," Rubio concluded, "but only after we help America through our border in the same way as Democrats are saying, 'We won't help Israel unless you help Ukraine,' because they're holding Israel as leverage and hostage over Ukraine. So at the end of the day, that's what I hope we can achieve here, and I think it begins by the president doing what he should do anyway, which is to reverse the executive orders that have caused this migrant crisis at our border."

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