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In his first headline appearance as Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth told a committee in Brussels that the Trump Administration intends to bring about a durable and lasting peace in Ukraine without offering the embattled European state NATO membership.
He also dismissed previous comments made by Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy about land settlement, saying that Kyiv must be prepared to accept conditions similar to those that reflect current battlefield realities.
His comments were made at the 57-member committee called the Ukraine Defense Contact Group which consists of all nations backing Ukraine militarily, and represent a dramatic shift away from the rhetoric of the Biden Administration, whose officials repeatedly stated the US would support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia and return the country’s “territorial integrity”.
“We will only end this devastating war—and establish a durable peace—by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,” Hegseth told the committee on Wednesday, adding that the US “does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”.
Instead, he laid out the Trump Administration’s plan, which would involve a security guarantee for Ukraine, backed up by significant peacekeeping forces from Europe that would not be protected under NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense agreement which states that if one member-state is attacked, all others are responsible for defending them.
“Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” he said, adding that Europe must be prepared to “provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine”.
Lastly, Hegseth said chasing the “illusory goal” of reclaiming pre-2014 Ukrainian borders “will only prolong the war and cause more suffering”.
Substantive starts
President Trump told reporters at the White House that he had back-to-back phone calls with Russian and Ukrainian officials including a 1.5-hour conversation with his opposite number in the Kremlin, which he called “highly productive”.
The President claimed Putin shared his eagerness to “stop the millions of deaths taking place” and that discussions to implement a peace agreement, which one supposes would be based somewhere along the lines of what Sect. Hegseth described, would start “immediately”.
Trump later said he planned to meet face-to-face with Putin “in the not-too-distant future”.
Again, it’s a far cry from the Biden Administration’s policy, which cut off virtually all communication with Russian officials since February 24th, 2022 when the Kremlin launched its invasion. Apart from a prisoner release, there was no occasional communication between the heads of state, even regarding the prevention of the use of nuclear weapons.
President Trump also spoke with Zelenskyy, a conversation he described as “highly substantive” and which the Ukrainian leader seemed to think went well, saying later “we are defining our joint steps with America to stop Russian aggression and guarantee a reliable, lasting peace”.
Before Hegseth spoke in Brussels, NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte told the Associated Press that any peace agreements between Russia and Ukraine could only succeed if the committee, and in particular NATO member-states, continued sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
“We have to make sure that [Putin] has no other option, and that means to force him to the table,” Rutte said. “He needs to understand that we will not give up on Ukraine. We have to make sure that we have maximum economic impact on Russia”.
It’s likely Rutte is reflecting the rhetoric seen under the previous Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, who along with Biden’s National Sec. Advisor Jake Sullivan, repeatedly said they wanted to see Russia “weakened and isolated,” and that the funding of the Ukrainian armed forces was in pursuit of that objective.
That would contrast with Hegseth and Trump’s intentions, but Hegseth was also clear that any future decisions on Ukrainian security would have to be funded and led by Europe, as the US would no longer be paying for Europe’s security concerns, representing a potential friction point between Trump and NATO leaders in the future. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers opening remarks during the 26th iteration of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. PC: US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander C. Kubitza.
