Hegseth Places Onus of Ukraine’s Security on Europe
Hegseth Places Onus of Ukraine’s Security on Europe
The U.S. defense secretary rules out U.S.-provided peacekeeping troops in Kyiv.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (second from left) attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels on Feb. 12. Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Trump administration delivered a stark message to NATO allies on Wednesday during U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first trip to Brussels in his new role: U.S. troops will not participate in any future peacekeeping missions in Ukraine; NATO’s Article 5 protections of mutual defense should not apply to any European forces sent to Ukraine for a postwar settlement; Kyiv should not expect to become a member of NATO; and Ukraine must be prepared to make substantial concessions over its Russian-occupied territory.
“Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine,” Hegseth said during his opening remarks to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, adding that the strategic threat that China poses means that the United States cannot be “primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Instead, Hegseth urged NATO members to increase their required defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of their GDP.
The Trump administration delivered a stark message to NATO allies on Wednesday during U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first trip to Brussels in his new role: U.S. troops will not participate in any future peacekeeping missions in Ukraine; NATO’s Article 5 protections of mutual defense should not apply to any European forces sent to Ukraine for a postwar settlement; Kyiv should not expect to become a member of NATO; and Ukraine must be prepared to make substantial concessions over its Russian-occupied territory.
“Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine,” Hegseth said during his opening remarks to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, adding that the strategic threat that China poses means that the United States cannot be “primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Instead, Hegseth urged NATO members to increase their required defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of their GDP.
Yet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refuses to rule out the need for U.S. security guarantees. “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he told the Guardian on Tuesday. Zelensky has suggested that he can persuade Trump to reconsider his position if Kyiv offers U.S. companies lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Hegseth’s statements came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had held their first publicized phone call on Wednesday. According to a summary of the call that Trump posted on Truth Social, he and Putin “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on ending the war in Ukraine. Trump followed that conversation with a call to Zelensky in which the two leaders “talked about opportunities to achieve peace” and “agreed to maintain further contact and plan upcoming meetings,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Read more in today’s World Brief: Hegseth Rules Out U.S. Peacekeeping in Ukraine.
This post is part of FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration. Follow along here.
Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy. X: @AlexandraSSharp
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