Hegseth stuns allies with blunt speech that rules out NATO membership for Ukraine

The new US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, has used his first appearance at a Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Brussels to deliver an uncompromising assessment of the war in Ukraine and to inform the other members of the NATO alliance that US global priorities had shifted away from Europe.

While Hegseth said that the Trump administration wanted to see “a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine”, he stressed the importance of recognising that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders” was an “unrealistic objective” and warned that chasing such an “illusionary goal” would “only prolong the war and cause more suffering”.

Hegseth further sank any Ukrainian hopes by adding that the United States did not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine was “a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”, and that instead of Kyiv ensuring its future security through fulfilling its long-stated aim of joining NATO, it would fall to “European and non-European troops” deployed as part of a non-NATO mission that was not covered under Article 5 to do so.

After delivering his stark comments on the war in Ukraine, Hegseth turned to Washington’s wider geopolitical strategy, suggesting a sea change in the Pax Americana was on the cards that would put an end to a post-World War II consensus that has endured for almost 80 years.

“Stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” Hegseth said, adding that the US would be focusing instead on the “security of our own borders” and competition from the “communist Chinese”, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

Shortly after Hegseth’s speech, it was confirmed by the Kremlin that Trump and Putin had spoken by phone in what was described as a “lengthy and highly productive” call on Wednesday, capping a bitterly disappointing day for Ukraine and for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in particular, whose mantra that there should be no discussion “about Ukraine without Ukraine”, now lies in tatters before a stunned Europe.