'I Think Ukrainians Are Going To Fight Back': Senator Marco Rubio On Russian Expansion
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Tensions remain high between the U.S. and Russia as the diplomatic situation over Ukraine continues to deteriorate.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was sending troops into two breakaway regions in Ukraine. He declared those regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, to be independent territories.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is expected to announce more sanctions against Russia on Tuesday.
Appearing on CBS Mornings, Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he expects Russia will expand its presence in Ukraine beyond those regions.
"So what's going to happen here is Russia is going to send in their troops to the areas that those two separatist regions control. But they're going to move in on those areas that Kyiv currently controls because they claim those too. When Kyiv fights back, then they're going to say that that violates, you know, that's going to trigger the mutual defense agreement that Putin signed yesterday with this fake new country and he's going to move in on those areas as well," he said.
Rubio, who is also the vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Ukraine is going to resist.
"I think he takes basically the entire east of the country and that includes, I think, he takes Kyiv the capital, he'll try anyway. I think Ukrainians are going to fight back. But this is going to have an impact on Americans, even though it seems to be really far away," he said.
The congressman said he believes the U.S. sanctions won't stop this from happening.
"Well, I don't believe the sanctions are going to stop them from doing what their plan is. But I do think there has to be, if you don't pay a price for doing this he's gonna do more of it," he said.
Rubio said Putin's actions are out of the old Soviet playbook.
"If you listen to that speech yesterday, the argument he used for why invading Ukraine, the old Soviet rules, you could make that argument about any of the Baltic states who are all who are now all members of NATO. Many of those Baltic States were actually part of the old Russian Empire even longer than Ukraine. You could use the same argument to take those. So he's not going to stop with Ukraine, if allowed, and he must pay a big price for it," he said.
Since Russia is one of the world's biggest producers of oil and a major exporter of natural gas, Rubio said the US needs to shift focus.
"We've got a return, for example, to our own domestic energy production, as a matter of national security emergency now, because Russia and this disruption that this is going to create is going to increase oil prices. We're going to feel it at the pump here in America. And that, by the way, will increase the prices on everything," he said.
Rubio said if the price of oil goes up to $110 to $115 a barrel, we are going to feel it at the pump.
He added that Ukraine is one of the world's largest agricultural producers, the fourth largest in wheat, fifth largest in corn, and that's going to raise global food prices, which will eventually impact us.
"When somebody gets cut off of that, now they become our competitors in the global market for food costs," said Rubio.
Ukraine is the world's leading producer of neon gas, which is critical to the production of semiconductors.
"Ninety percent of the neon gas used to make semiconductors in America, something there's a shortage of already, comes from Ukraine. If that's disrupted or cut off, we're going to really struggle. Remember back in 2014, when that invasion happened, it really increased the prices of semiconductors, you can see now where that's playing out in our economy," said Rubio.
He said it could also affect our space industry since we still depend on Russia for key components in many of our commercial launches.
Rubio said with the danger of escalation, he expects Russia with cyberattacks on some levels which would require a response from the U.S. There's also the threat of combat.
This is a very tense and dangerous moment. You have NATO fully mobilized, you have the largest land army since World War II, masked by the Russians. They are operating within very close distance proximity of one another. So this is a moment of high tension. It's a moment for some sobriety, we have to respond strong, but we also have to be smart at the same time and avoid unnecessary needless escalation because that would become catastrophic."