Russia’s nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine has become a “war of attrition” and a “stalemate” that must be ended, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Rubio broke from the passive stance of the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden, which has said it was up to Kyiv to decide under what terms it would be open to peace talks with Moscow. In the meantime, the U.S., along with its European allies, has continued to send billions of dollars of armaments to Ukraine to continue the fight. Rubio instead said the first step in ending the war should be a ceasefire that halts ground fighting, which has for more than a year mostly occurred in eastern Ukraine. However, ongoing fighting is also raging in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine captured in August, even as Moscow has attempted to retake it with the help of North Korean troops. Both countries also target each other daily with aerial strikes, drones and missiles, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Russian attacks, along with vast numbers of both countries’ troops. “This war has to end,” he said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rubio called the destruction in Ukraine “extraordinary,” saying it will “take a generation to rebuild.” But even as he argued for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Rubio said it was unlikely that there would be much change in the current battle lines. Russia currently holds about a fifth of the internationally recognized Ukrainian…Read more