No U.S. Peacekeepers to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Hegseth Says

BRUSSELS – U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth connected Wednesday said Washington would not nonstop peacekeepers to Ukraine arsenic portion of post-war information guarantees for Kyiv and dismissed the extremity of restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders arsenic “unrealistic.”

In a code wherever helium stressed that the U.S. remained committed to NATO but would “no longer tolerate” European confederation members depending connected Washington for security, Hegseth told the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that the U.S.’s precedence was present contention with China, arsenic “stark strategical realities forestall the U.S. from being chiefly focused connected Europe.”

His comments during the NATO defence ministerial successful Brussels came during a captious week for the aboriginal of European information and the warfare successful Ukraine. 

Russia’s astir three-year warfare connected its neighbour volition beryllium astatine the apical of the docket astatine the Munich Security Conference wherever Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to beryllium successful attendance on with Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and peculiar envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg.

Hegseth said that Ukraine’s aboriginal information guarantees should not beryllium backed by NATO, but “capable European and non-European troops instead.” 

However, the erstwhile Fox News presenter ruled retired deploying U.S. troops to Ukraine arsenic peacekeepers and said that immoderate peacekeeping unit should beryllium a non-NATO ngo and not covered by Article 5.

Article 5 of the NATO foundational pact says that an equipped onslaught connected 1 subordinate authorities should beryllium considered an onslaught connected the full confederation and that members should assistance the state that comes nether attack.

President Donald Trump — who has vowed to extremity the Russia-Ukraine warfare without detailing however — has been highly captious of European NATO members that neglect to conscionable the alliance’s benchmark of committing 2% of GDP to defence spending.

In 2025, helium said that NATO members should walk 5% of their GDP connected defence (the United States spent 2.7% successful 2024). 

Hegseth told the gathering of 57 interaction radical subordinate states and the EU connected Wednesday that helium thought that Poland’s 5% defence spending was a exemplary for the alliance. Poland, successful fact, has pledged to walk 4.7% of its GDP connected defence this year.

“Part of this is speaking frankly with your radical astir however this menace tin lone beryllium met by spending much connected defense,” helium said, urging attendees to donate much ammunition and instrumentality to Ukraine and grow their defence concern bases.

He besides said it was “unrealistic” to question the instrumentality of Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders successful negotiations to extremity the war, a longstanding extremity of Kyiv’s. Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea that twelvemonth and claimed to person annexed 4 eastbound Ukrainian regions pursuing its full-scale penetration successful 2022.

“Chasing this illusory extremity volition lone prolong the warfare and origin much suffering,” helium said. “A durable bid for Ukraine indispensable see robust information guarantees to guarantee that the warfare won’t statesman again.”

Speaking connected Ukraine’s different long-stated extremity of joining NATO, Hegseth said that the U.S. “does not judge that NATO rank for Ukraine is simply a realistic result of a negotiated settlement.”

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