Hegseth: Ukraine’s Return To 2014 Borders, NATO Membership “Unrealistic” For Peace Talks
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump wanted an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by diplomacy, claiming that it would be “unrealistic” for Ukraine to regain its pre-2014 borders and to be granted NATO membership as a result of peace negotiations.
In his opening remarks at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth claimed that returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders would “only prolong the war and cause more suffering”. Hegseth’s remarks provide the latest indications of how the Trump administration will approach the conflict in Ukraine.
While Hegseth insisted that any peace settlement had to result in a “durable peace” and not “Minsk 3.0”, he said the United States would not commit any troops to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. “Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission and not covered under Article 5. There also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact.”
Hegseth also said that European nations would provide the “overwhelming” majority of lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine going forwards, saying European leaders needed to speak “frankly with your people” about how the Russian threat to Ukraine and Europe required increasing defense spending to 5% of national gross domestic products.
Hegseth continued that the United States was prioritizing competition with China and domestic border security, but it remained committed to NATO and its defense partnerships in Europe “full stop”. However, he insisted that the relationship going forward would prioritize “empowering” Europe to take responsibility for its security going forward, instead of an “imbalanced relationship” that “encourages dependency”. “Honesty will be our policy going forward, but only in the spirit of solidarity”.
Following Hegseth’s speech, media present at the meeting were ordered to leave the room, despite initial scheduling for speeches from NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov.