"Nobody wins". Rubio calls the Russian-Ukrainian war "the most illogical": main points

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that "no one is really winning" in the Russia-Ukraine war, but he thinks that now is the "perfect time" to end it. He said this in an interview with Fox News .

Commenting on the words of US President Donald Trump that he thought it would be "the easiest" to end the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it turned out not to be the case, Rubio said: "I think what he really means is that this is the most illogical war ".

He believes that in this war, it would be logical to conclude that it is time to end it "because no one is really winning it in the traditional sense of victory.".

"The Russians are killing 7000 Russian soldiers every week. 7,000 is more than we've lost in some of the wars we've fought in total <…> What they're literally fighting for right now is about 30-50 kilometers of space in the 20% of the Donetsk region that's left [unoccupied]," Rubio said.

He believes that the United States has made some progress in figuring out "what Ukrainians can live with," which will give Kyiv security guarantees for the future and allow it not only to rebuild its economy, but also to prosper and develop.

According to Rubio, "if you do the right things," in 10 years Ukraine's GDP could be larger than Russia's .

He emphasized that the United States is trying to end the war and make sure that Ukraine is never invaded again, that its sovereignty and independence are protected, that it does not become a "puppet state", and that its economy thrives.

He reiterated that "this is not a US war," but America is involved in the settlement because it is "the only one in the world that can do it," and Trump is "the only leader in the world who can talk to both sides and make a deal.".

"We're trying to see if we can bridge the gap between both sides. To do that, we need to talk to both sides," Rubio said, while calling those who advocate talking only to Ukraine "irrational people.".

He emphasized that it is impossible to end the war between Russia and Ukraine without talking to Russia, but Kyiv's position "should also be taken into account.".

"They were very brave in their fight. But we believe that now is the perfect time for both sides to end the war. And if there is a way to bridge the gap between the two sides, we are the only ones in the world who can do it. And that is what we are trying to do. Ultimately, it's up to them," the official said .

He stated that if Ukraine and Russia decide that they do not want to end the war, the war will continue, but the United States will try to bring it to an end, and Trump should be "praised, not criticized" for this .

"Some of these people have this idea that our policy should be to just continue to finance Ukraine in unlimited amounts for as long as the war lasts. This is unrealistic. And it's not going to happen. And we have been talking about this for a long time. You cannot sustain this scale and scope," Rubio is convinced.

At the same time, he reminded that at a certain stage of the war, Russia controlled much more territory than it does now. Ukrainian forces managed to "push the Russians far back" if you look at the map of the first three months of the full-scale invasion.

But now it has turned into a war of attrition, Rubio said.

"And unfortunately, the Russians have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice 7,000 soldiers a week. This is insane. In an effort to achieve this, Putin said a few weeks ago: it may take a long time, but we will achieve our goals," Rubio recalled .

He added that in the case of the Russian Federation the decision should be made only by Putin, not his advisors – only he can put an end to this war from the Russian side.

• On the evening of December 2, Moscow ended hours-long talks between Putin, US special envoy Steve Vitkoff and son-in-law and senior adviser to the US President Jared Kushner .
• Ukraine is waiting for signals from the US delegation after the meeting with the Russian dictator.