American push for peace in Ukraine is "not a betrayal," Hegseth says
From CNN's Edward Szekeres
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers an address to the media prior to a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the United States had betrayed Ukraine on Thursday, following President Donald Trump’s apparent adoption of a conciliatory stance toward Moscow nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor began.
Trump’s signal to Russian leader Vladimir Putin of his willingness to make concessions to Moscow in a push for a ceasefire has raised concerns in Ukraine, but Hegseth said the path toward peace “will require both sides recognizing things they don’t want to.”
“No country, as President Trump has pointed out, has made a larger commitment for the Ukrainian mission than the United States of America,” Hegseth told reporters before a meeting with NATO ministers in Brussels, citing the billions in aid provided by the US for Ukraine’s war effort.
“There is no betrayal there,” he said.
Hegseth, who earlier called Kyiv’s desire for NATO membership “unrealistic,” said the war in Ukraine had been “a factory reset” for the defense alliance as he reiterated Trump’s call for increased defense spending from its member states.
“Even 2% of GDP is not enough,” the defense secretary said.
“5% of defense spending is critical, a realization that there is a Russian war machine that has sought to take more and more land in Ukraine, and standing up against that is an important European responsibility.”
7 hr 37 min ago
NATO scrambles as Trump is accused of having "effectively surrendered" to Putin
From CNN's Rob Picheta
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Reuters/Getty Images
Ukraine and its NATO partners are working to ensure that US President Donald Trump’s push to end Moscow’s war on the country does not cut Kyiv out, after Trump’s administration signaled a drastic severance from decades of American foreign policy in Europe.
Trump has “effectively surrendered” to Vladimir Putin, his former national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday, after the US president struck a conciliatory tone toward his Russian counterpart in
a phone call that is likely to raise alarm in Ukraine.
It came hours after US Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth said the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic and that the United States will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the administration shifts its attention to securing the US’ own borders and competition with China.
Ukraine imeachwa hewani na mshirika wake muhimu.
Msaada wa nchi za ulaya magharibi pekee hauwezi kujaza pengo la Marekani.
T14 Armata