Ukraine can no longer regain the territories occupied by Russia after 2024. This was announced by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Speaking at a meeting of Ukraine's military allies in Brussels, Hegseth also added that Ukraine's accession to NATO is unrealistic. Hegseth's statement is the clearest and most open yet on the new US administration's approach to the nearly three-year-old war.
"We want a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must begin by recognizing that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal. Pursuing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering. A lasting peace for Ukraine must include strong security guarantees to ensure that war does not start again. The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement; rather, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops; if these troops are deployed as peacekeepers in Ukraine at any time, they must be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission. To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will be no U.S. troops deployed in Ukraine," Secretary Hegseth said.
He also told Washington's NATO allies that they would have to step up and take greater responsibility for Europe's security. Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed uprising against Kiev forces in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Many NATO allies would actually agree with Hegseth that the return of Crimea from Russia is not realistic, nor has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on this as a precursor to peace talks.
A NATO official told CNN that it would have been more concerning if Hegseth had said that returning to Ukraine's borders before 2022 was unrealistic.
Hegseth also did not announce any new U.S. aid to Ukraine.
"We are also here today to state directly and unequivocally that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from focusing primarily on the security of Europe," he said. (A2 Televizion)
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