Rubio Warns of ‘Medieval-Type Siege’ on Kyiv

Monday on Fox News Channel’s ‘The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he anticipated a siege of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv was possible by the invading Russians.

Rubio speculated the objective was to force the collapse of the Ukrainian government and pave the way for Russian President Vladimir Putin to install a “puppet government.”

Partial transcript as follows:

Yes, well, he never would have done this had he not felt that China, to some extent, would be there to help buffer the pain of it. There’s no doubt about it. In fact, he moved a bunch of troops from the far east of Russia, something they’d never done before because, as you know, it’s – China has claimed – China claims Siberia belongs to them. So always been a strong Russian military presence there. He pulled a lot of that towards the Belarusian towards disengagement.

But I would add, look, nobody knows what happens here next, but some things are becoming pretty obvious. And you can see it from the commercial imagery you’re talking about here tonight. It’s pretty clear now that what’s happening is a massive Russian forces pushing in from the north. They’re going to try to take the western part of Kyiv.

And the reason being that all the supplies that we keep talking about everything that we’re providing and other countries are providing, it has to come over from the West. So if they can cut Kyiv off of those supplies, it begins to really deteriorate the city standing.

And then obviously, you have this other two forces that are pushing in from the northeast. Eventually, they’ll try to take the east. And once they’ve got Kyiv encircled, then I think you’re going to see a medieval-type siege. And that means people starving. They’re hoping the government will collapse or surrender, capitulate. And then they can install some sort of puppet government, which has been his goal the whole time.

So that’s clearly the aim they have. Obviously, the Ukrainians have fought a lot harder and more effectively than we anticipate. Their spirits are very high. So they still have a chance to disrupt this. But this is clearly what they’re planning to do. And as you’ve seen from the imagery being shown on Fox News and other places, what they’re bringing down from the north is a massive, massive show of force.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor