Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of potential negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that “everything is on the table.”
“I want to be clear about something as it pertains to NATO membership not being a realistic outcome for negotiations,” Hegseth said Thursday at the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in Brussels. A day earlier he had said it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to expect NATO membership in any peace deal.
“That’s something that was stated as part of my remarks here as part of a coordination with how we’re executing these ongoing negotiations, which are led by President Trump. All of that said, these negotiations are led by President Trump. Everything is on the table.”
On Wednesday, Hegseth, in addition to casting doubt on Ukraine’s ability to join NATO, also said that a return to its pre-2014 borders — before Russia’s first invasion resulting in the annexation of Crimea — was not a realistic goal for any negotiated settlement. He reiterated that point Thursday.
“Simply pointing out realism like the borders won’t be rolled back to what everybody would like them to be in 2014 is not a concession to Vladimir Putin,” Hegseth said. “It’s a recognition of the hard power realities on the ground after a lot of investment and sacrifice.”
Biden administration officials, too, had cautioned against hopes for a full restoration of Ukraine’s territory. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said at the beginning of 2023 that “for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all — every inch of Ukraine and occupied — or Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
Russia today controls about 20% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. The U.S. and most of the world do not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
There have been hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides of the war that will soon enter its third year, and the past few months have favored Russia’s ability to keep expending large numbers of troops on the front lines to make slow and steady gains in eastern Ukraine.
The Biden administration contributed about $66 billion in military weapons and equipment to Ukraine, and the U.S. government still has about $3.8 billion in presidential drawdown authority to commit more weapons from current Defense Department stocks to Ukraine.
Hegseth said Thursday that any future assistance to Ukraine, “either less or more, could be on the table in, in negotiations as well.”
“I’m not going to I’m not going to be involved in those intimate diplomatic negotiations,” Hegseth said. “That’s for the pros atop the Trump administration who do diplomacy and negotiations.”
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Mr. Trump said of Ukraine that aid could depend on a trade deal giving the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” he said. “They have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
