Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 White House hopeful, broke with many in his own party on Russia’s war with Ukraine, saying that protecting Kyiv is not a vital national security interest for the country and calling Moscow’s invasion a “territorial dispute” between the two countries.

"While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, part of a questionnaire the host sent to several prospective and declared Republican presidential candidates.

“The Biden administration’s virtual 'blank check' funding of this conflict for 'as long as it takes,' without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges,” DeSantis continued in the statement, which Carlson posted to Twitter.

"Without question, peace should be the objective," the Florida governor said. "The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable."

According to a report from CNN, DeSantis, as a member of Congress, previously supported sending arms to Ukraine and condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

DeSantis' stance draws a sharp contrast to that of many top Congressional Republicans, who have expressed steadfast support for Ukraine in the conflict, and puts him in line with the candidate likeliest to stand in his way for the GOP nomination: former President Donald Trump.

In his own response to Carlson’s questionnaire, Trump called the invasion a failure of the Biden administration, saying it “would definitely not have” happened were he still president.

“The sad fact is that, due to a new lack of respect for the U.S., caused at least partially by our incompetently handled pullout from Afghanistan, and a very poor choice of words by Biden in explaining U.S. requests and intentions … the bloody and expensive assault began, and continues to this day,” Trump charged, calling for the president to “meet with each side” and “quickly work out a deal.”

“This can be easily done if conducted by the right President,” Trump wrote. “Both sides are weary and ready to make a deal. The meetings should start immediately, there is no time to spare. The death and destruction MUST END NOW!”

Trump similarly said that opposing Russia is not vital to the country’s national interests.

“No, but it is for Europe,” Trump said. “But not for the United States. That is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal.”

Those statements put the two likely frontrunners for the 2024 GOP nomination at odds with a significant portion of Congressional Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who recently called backing the Ukrainian people “a direct investment in our own core national interests.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, rebuffed DeSantis’ characterization of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.”

“It’s not a ‘territorial dispute,’ in the sense that … any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wanted to invade Canada or take over the Bahamas,” Rubio told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday. “Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean it belongs to them.”

“This is an invasion,” Rubio continued, adding: “This is not the same as two countries arguing over disputed boundaries that were settled in some treaty 50 years ago. This is basically the Russians want Ukraine to be under their thumb.”

Rubio said that the U.S. does have an interest in the conflict, but admitted the war is not “the number one interest in the world,” citing competition with China as the country’s “single-biggest foreign policy priority.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, another potential 2024 contender, expressed staunch support for Ukraine, saying in a statement to Carlson that “there is no room for Putin apologists in the Republican Party.”

“When the United States supports Ukraine in their fight against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, we follow the Reagan doctrine, and we support those who fight our enemies on their shores, so we will not have to fight them ourselves,” he wrote, adding: “This is not America’s war, but if Putin is not stopped and the sovereign nation of Ukraine is not restored quickly, he will continue to move toward our NATO allies, and America would then be called upon to send our own.”

Other potential and declared 2024 GOP White House hopefuls were split on support for Ukraine. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Carlson that "Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a national security issue that threatens our alliances and our standing in the world," while South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who has backed aid for Kyiv, said that "degrading the Russian military is in our vital national interest," while calling for accountability on money spent. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed that Biden's "blank check foreign policy in Ukraine has drawn nothing but ridicule and disdain from our adversaries and has diverted funding from essential needs" at home, while South Carolina Gov. Kristi Noem said that "this should be Europe’s fight, not ours." Entrepeneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who recently launched a White House bid, said that opposing Russia is not vital to U.S. interests while stressing the need for the country to have energy independence.

Other GOP hopefuls, like former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, did not respond to Carlson's questionnaire.