WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Breitbart News exclusively that it is not a “serious offer” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ask for nuclear weapons for Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership as part of peace talks with Russia.
“Well, I don’t think anyone would think that’s a serious offer on their part, nor do I think equipping them with nuclear weapons is a solution to the problem,” Rubio told Breitbart News when asked about Zelensky’s comments recently that he wants nukes if Ukraine will not be joining NATO.
Rubio had sat down Monday evening with Breitbart News at the State Department headquarters in Washington, DC, for a long-form, on-camera interview. In the first piece released Monday evening, Rubio discussed the dueling resolutions at the United Nations about the Russian war in Ukraine. In this piece, Rubio goes more in-depth about each side and responds to critics of the early stages of the peace process.
“I haven’t heard him [Zelensky] say that, so if he’s out there saying that, I don’t think that’s a realistic demand to have,” Rubio continued. “We need less nuclear-armed countries, not more — nor do I think that solves their problem as they view it. I think he has a fundamental challenge and that’s okay; how do you reach an end to the conflict that’s enduring and that’s going to be in place and that’s not all of a sudden going to lead to a new war in a year or two years or three years? That’s the kind of thing that’s going to have to be talked about in any negotiation. But I don’t think nuclear weapons are the answer to that.”
Zelensky has floated the idea of a nuclear-armed Ukraine in a couple different public forums recently including in a recent interview with Piers Morgan in early February.
“Give us back nuclear arms,” Zelensky told Morgan while speaking through an interpreter. As Politico noted in a piece about this Zelensky interview, Ukraine had inherited nuclear weapons after the fall of the Soviet Union but gave them up in 1994 in exchange for security assurances from the Russians, Americans, and British.
Clearly, though, Rubio is ruling that out as a serious possibility for the future of Ukraine in a post-war world.
Rubio also told Breitbart News that when it comes to the Russians, it “will be part of a conversation” with them to pressure them to reverse Russian President Vladimir Putin’s takeover of western companies particularly an American-owned company called Glavproduct. Glavproduct, a Russian canned foods company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American company Universal Beverage, was effectively seized by the Russian government during the waning days of former President Joe Biden’s administration in October, right before President Donald Trump defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the election. A previous Breitbart News piece on this quoted the State Department on background ripping Putin’s regime for this move, but these comments from Rubio are the first on-record comments from the Trump administration on this front.
“Well, that will be part of a conversation,” Rubio told Breitbart News. “Look, as part of this — that’s step two in this process. Step one is we get our embassies working. Our embassy in Moscow barely functions at this point. We have great people working there, but they can’t function because the Russians have made life miserable, so we got to get that straightened out. I remind everybody that at the height of the Cold War, in the worst days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States still had a relationship. We still spoke. Thank God we did during the [Cuban] Missile Crisis, for example. Ultimately, had we not kept that communication, the Cold War never would have ended theoretically or could have ended in terrible things like World War 3. So that’s step one. Step two is, okay we have to invite them and say, ‘okay, are you guys serious about ending this thing? Let’s sit down and talk about it.’ I think step three is if we can end the conflict, what does U.S.-Russia relations look like in the 21st century? Are there things we can work on together geopolitically or maybe even economically? The president has talked about that. There are opportunities to work together, and obviously that’s going to entail talking about not just Russian assets that have been seized by the Europeans or the U.S. or whatever but also American companies that have been hurt. So that will be part of a broader conversation about how to reset our relations. We’re not at that step yet, and I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. None of that is even possible, and we can’t even really talk about those things or fix those things until we bring this war to at least some sort of enduring ceasefire and hopefully permanent end.”
Rubio also pushed back on critics who have said the Trump administration is giving away too much to Putin as these peace process talks begin, calling them “hypocritical” because the same people he said who want war in Ukraine to continue, called for Israel to stop its response to Hamas after the October 7 terrorist attack. Rubio said that Trump will not be deterred by critics and is convinced peace is possible in Ukraine.
“First of all, I think it’s hypocritical. These are the same people, by the way, that were arguing after October 7 when these savages went in and did what they did in Israel that somehow Israel shouldn’t do anything about it,” Rubio said. “These are the same people who were demanding a ceasefire and ending hostilities and allowing Hamas to survive, and on the other hand, they’re arguing, ‘let the war in Ukraine go on. Let it go on for a couple more years. Let us continue to subsidize it with billions of dollars and thousands of lives being destroyed. Let the country be destroyed.’ So, it’s hypocritical. And I think, at the same time, usually in American history, presidents have been applauded when they seek peace — except for Trump. President Trump on the other hand is attacked by these outlets for wanting to seek peace. Any negotiation, and we’re not going to negotiate through the media, but in any negotiation to end a war and a conflict, there’s going to have to be give and take. Each side is going to have to give up something, and they’re going to have to give something. Everyone knows that. That’s mature foreign policy. So we don’t pay a lot of attention to the criticism because frankly, for some of those voices, no matter what President Trump does they’re going to criticize him. But they’ve been doing that now for eight years and it didn’t work.”
Much more from Rubio’s interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming soon.