Rubio: Russia Is Invading Ukraine and the Lesson Is We Can’t Be Dependent on Hostile Nations Like Russia and China

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that Russia has “begun to execute” its plan to invade Ukraine, one lesson from the invasion is “This is what happens when you depend on other countries for your energy and everything else,” and Russia knows it controls a large amount of Europe’s natural gas.

Rubio said, “So, look, I think it’s a pretty clear direction of the plan that they’re going to be executing on, they’ve begun to execute it. You’re already seeing incredibly heavy cyber and electronic warfare, the troop movements that are happening. … I mean, this is it — this is the — their military plan has been well understood for some time now. And they’ve executed it, and we have now reached that stage of execution. We know what comes next, and now, it’s just a matter of hours here that we’re — before it really starts to manifest. … But it is underway. This is it, unfortunately.”

He later added, “[T]here’s a real, big important lesson here: … This is what happens when you depend on other countries for your energy and everything else, for your food — we’re overly dependent on China for our supply chain, but, Europe, over 40% of Europe’s natural gas comes from Russia and that’s what Putin knows.”

Rubio further stated that the U.S. needs to increase its domestic manufacturing so it doesn’t have to buy as much from China, and “That’s the lesson we need to take from this: We cannot continue to be that vulnerable to these countries who are not our friends.”

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