Guest Commentary: Secretary Rubio: ‘Words are not enough’
Since this weekend is victory day which will be celebrated by Russia, I wanted to write this letter to Sec. Rubio who recently became National Security Advisor.
An Open Letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
In the wake of threats waged by warmonger despots such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Sayyid Ali Khamenei, I am writing to offer my sincere intentions that you may guide our nation with courageous statesmanship.
Throughout your many years of publicly held office, you and I have intersected on a variety of political and official matters — most recently, with regard to U.S. aid to Ukraine’s military in whom hundreds of American soldiers have volunteered to serve in addition to the small U.S. military presence now coordinating support efforts within the war-torn country.
Long devoted to the study of law, politics, and war, I would love to uphold the ideal that global conflicts can be solved with negotiations… diplomacy… and “deals”… But I am also a realist, and the reality of the world is that international law cannot stand on its own as an enforcement mechanism. At war, pen and paper is as good as origami, when it fails, we need military force.
On May 1, 2025 you echoed this sentiment, urging our European allies that “words are not enough.”
But are the U.S. admin’s actions synonymous with such principles when financial enrichment is placed above the security interests of our people?
Although incentivizing economic ties with Ukraine is positive, the “Minerals Deal” was yet again another political brokering that used military aid as a pawn, it failed to authorize security guarantees, and it duped Americans into thinking this was a “peace deal.” The text — (still changeable as it has yet to be ratified by U.S. Congress and Ukraine’s Parliament) — opens by praising the monstrous ’90s-era Ukraine nuclear arsenal transfer to Russia, a move which actually set the stage for the deadliest modern invasion of our world today. Is this metamorphosis of history how you want to be remembered, Secretary Rubio? A political cover up of the Clinton-era stain known as Budapest Memorandum?
And we will never forget how the “rare earth” negotiations were opened — with the infamous “Oval Office” meeting which strained relations not only between our politicians-but our people — not only the Ukrainians and Americans, but the people of the many allied nations who support Ukraine and who now question, “Are Americans really our friends?” Under your leadership, Secretary, the U.S. admin enforced a quid pro quo on military aid to our Ukrainian soldiers, such as the U.S. admin’s pause in aid in March 2025, where under your leadership, cutting off Intelligence and defense aid, which directly caused loss in Ukrainian-held territory in Kursk, territory in which our Ukrainian brothers sacrificed their lives in order to gain leverage in any possible negotiations with enemy Russia (and by negotiations, I actually mean “force.”)
This tragic hypocrisy was a repeat of the same way we lost territory in Avdiivka in 2023, in which the Ukrainians, including some American and other freedom fighters with Chosen Company who sacrificed their lives to gain back territory held by Russia since 2014, but ultimately lost it again to Russia because they were down so bad on ammo they’d go days without shooting- all because of stalled aid in U.S. Congress.
Flash forward to March 2025, as soon as the admin’s knee-jerk reactive policy-making fell through, (yet again) I personally received intel passed to me from my comms with the Ukrainian military, as well as an American defense contractor who ships artillery to Ukraine, who confirmed to me, we’re back on.
America screwed up.
And now the only thing we can do is move forward on how to get ahead of our enemies in the arms race, how to strengthen our defense partnership with the Ukrainians, one of the most indispensable militaries on Earth… and Ukrainians are the only ones who can help our own military scale up our preparedness in modern warfare including drone technology innovations which would prevent needless waste, especially since the U.S. just blew almost $2 billion in heavy assets (Hornets, Reapers, etc.) during our recent six-week Red Sea war against Houthi terrorists proxied by Iran, Russia’s vassal state whose Shahed drones aka “Kamikazes” continue to rain over Ukraine and have most recently been laced with chemical agents, in spite of the U.S. admin’s so-called “ceasefires.”
We must move forward on U.S. policy-making which can contribute to our Ukraine’s success -we must lift strike bans on American-made long-range weapons, so the artillery we give Ukraine is not forced to creep closer to the frontlines, exposing valuable American-made weapons to electronic warfare powered by Russian fiber optic cables which cannot be stopped by “drone jammers,” such as the one my community sent to Commander Yuri Makhnovet’s unit with Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade in Luhansk. And though on May 7 Ukraine has striked for the second time Russia’s largest fiber optic cable station, thanks in part by efforts of Commander Ryan O’ Leary of Chosen Company, who my community also supports, we still need to lift the U.S. admin’s bans on strikes on Russian energy depots, close loopholes in U.S. sanctions which permit transaction with criminal institutes such as Russian Central Bank, and fool-proof the Senate-pending secondary sanctions to punish buyers of Russia’s dark fleet which illegally peddles blood oil across our “free” waters.
We need to move forward, but U.S. President Trump constantly stares backwards with the meaningless fantasy that this war would have never happened if he was elected in 2020, or his most recent claims that, “Millions are dying” because of the “foolish decision” to ban Russia from G8.” Honestly, I did not know that it was the U.S. President’s job to “Ukraine-splain” to us the “revised” version of our shared history, but nevertheless, I am willing to assist the President in a brief lesson on history as I am vigilantly writing it in real time… last time I checked my notes, our national security interests were not contingent on short-term financial gain, especially when inflation due to shipping costs directly correlates to war. Not sure about the Americans who need a “thank you,” but no G7 maneuvering, no minerals deal paint job can ever placate me when I know that countless evils could have been avoided if the U.S. had adequately equipped Ukraine’s military.
After all, was money ever really the issue, when U.S. military aid to Ukraine totals at about $67 billion since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, of which only $37 billion worth in actual weapons have been delivered to Ukraine… mostly near-expiring weapons which would have cost taxpayers to decommission, and in which the bulk remainder of aid went back into our own defense production?
You said it yourself, Secretary, when speaking to our European partners this week, that they must “step up with real resources and political will” if they hope to bring the war to an end.
But how can we expect to conjure the resources or political will of our alliance in Europe if we cannot even do so back home? Well, in any case, I’m here also to assist with the populace, at least, for all of those capable of thinking straight, or at the very least, have a conscience. But as for the Americans who callously turn a blind eye to human suffering and who deceptively align with enemy interests as if bending to warmongers that threaten civilian life for their own scheming self aggrandizement was an actual path to “peace,” who in their comfort spreads lies and ignores the truth… it’s actually them (Tucker Carlson “and friends”) who are just as responsible for this war as Nazi Russia itself. They might as well join the mocking parades of “victory” that will take place this weekend by the Kremlin-paid organizers — the cowards who have finally crawled out of their closets after three years of war, who meanwhile hide behind their right-wing media puppets who prostitute themselves for a ruble or forint to infect the American public opinion.
Truly patriotic and authentic American voices would never bring such shame to our nation…
The American voices we should be listening to are those who understand the realities of war and speak in facts, figures, and truth…. the warriors, and we who stand by them, most notably, Ukraine’s American foreign fighters, our active U.S. military ramped up along NATO’s eastern front, our U.S. reserves, and our U.S .veterans who publicly support our defense partnership with Ukraine. I am linked with many of them, in addition to the international community of volunteers who have personally raised funds to send provisions and equipment to Ukraine’s military as our government continues to fail to do so.
I hope to return to Ukraine shortly to continue my civilian mission alongside the military to bring voice to this critical fight. Meantime, Secretary Rubio, now that we have abandoned peace talks with terrorist enemy Russia, I encourage you to go beyond what enemy interests might dictate in your pursuit of our own national security interests, and open a constructive dialogue with Ukraine’s leaders, especially the serving members of the military, so our country can understand and meet their critical needs with rational policy-making and weapons.
Lasting peace must be honorable, in preservation of dignity and justice for all people, this is the only peace Ukraine continues to fight for, as no triumph of pacifism is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war. Let us never forget America was founded on such principles.
To my friends, To victory!
— Alexandra Zakhvatayev of Southwest Florida will soon return to Ukraine for a journalism project to benefit the war effort.