Hegseth rules out NATO membership for Ukraine and says Europe must be responsible for country’s security – CNN
Source: CNN
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic and that the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the Trump administration shifts its attention to securing the US’ own borders and deterring war with China.
In remarks before a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth also said that European troops should be the primary force securing a post-war Ukraine—something US troops will not be involved in, he added.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said. And he added that any security guarantees offered to Ukraine “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.
Hegseth also said that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders, before Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine, “is an unrealistic objective.”
Many NATO allies would actually agree with Hegseth that getting Crimea back from Russia is not realistic, and not even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted on that as a precursor to peace talks. One NATO official said it would have been more concerning if Hegseth had said that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2022 borders was unrealistic.
But the comments about security guarantees are sure to concern Zelensky, who said this week that Europe alone cannot provide meaningful security guarantees to Ukraine without American leadership. Zelensky has also continued to insist that his country joining NATO is the only way to deter Russia from launching new attacks in the future.
Hours after Hegseth spoke, President Donald Trump announced he’d spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning. Trump said the two agreed to work “very closely” together and begin negotiations “immediately” on ending the war in Ukraine.
“[W]e will begin by calling President Zelensky, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation,” Trump said. The Kremlin said Wednesday that Putin invited Trump to visit Moscow, which would mark the first visit by a US president since 2013.
Trump spoke with Zelensky shortly after getting off the phone with Putin.
Later on Wednesday afternoon, Trump said he agrees with Hegseth and does not “think it’s practical” to have Ukraine join NATO.
“I don’t think it’s practical to have it. Personally, I know that our new secretary of defense is excellent. Pete made a statement today saying that he thinks it’s unlikely or impractical. I think probably that’s true. I think long before President Putin, they said there’s no way they’d allow that. This has been going on for many, many years. They’ve been saying that for a long time that Ukraine did not go into NATO, and I’m okay with that,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
A European defense official told CNN that while many in NATO don’t necessarily believe Ukraine can join the alliance given the political realities with Russia, they also don’t say so publicly —as Hegseth did — because they want to avoid giving Russia the idea that it can dictate who can and cannot join.
Some former Biden administration officials weighed in quickly on X, saying Hegseth had ceded valuable leverage.
“They just surrendered one of the main points of leverage before negotiations even begin,” said former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Hegseth also did not announce any new US aid to Ukraine. “We’re also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” he said.
Hegseth’s comments did not necessarily come as a surprise to the US’ allies. NATO and the European Union had been bracing for the US to step back significantly from the leading role it had been playing since 2022 in providing and coordinating military aid to Ukraine. That is why NATO set up its own security mechanism to help coordinate military assistance to the country.
“We hear your concerns on stepping up for Ukraine, and we hear your concerns on stepping up for European security,” UK Defense Secretary John Healey said in response. “We are and we will.”
The UK may quicky be supplanting the US as Ukraine’s closest western ally. It chaired the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group for the first time on Wednesday, and Ukrainian defense minister Rustem Umerov issued a lengthy readout of his meeting with Healey at NATO on Wednesday, accompanied by a photo of the pair shaking hands and smiling.
Read more: Click here