Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded an end to the war in Ukraine at the NATO headquarters.
“President Trump has been clear with the American people — and with many of your leaders — that stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a top priority. He intends to end this war by diplomacy and bring both Russia and Ukraine to the table. And the U.S. Department of Defense will help achieve this goal,” he said.
“We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield.”
While he noted that the U.S. wants a “sovereign and prosperous Ukraine,” Hegseth asserted that countries must recognize that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
“A durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. This must not be Minsk 3.0. That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” he explained, noting that “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 they should not be covered under Article 5.”
Hegseth emphasized that “there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine.”
“To further enable effective diplomacy and drive down energy prices that fund the Russian war machine, President Trump is unleashing American energy production and encouraging other nations to do the same,” he said, explaining that “lower energy prices coupled with more effective enforcement of energy sanctions will help bring Russia to the table” and that “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”
Although the United States is “committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe,” it will “no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship that encourages dependency.”
