It is Europe’s responsibility to stop the Russian “war machine,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters before a meeting with NATO ministers in Brussels on Thursday.
Hegseth repeated his call for increased defense spending by NATO countries, which he said should ultimately reach 5% of gross domestic product.
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.
