BRUSSELS — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and in sweeping remarks suggested that the country should abandon hopes of returning to its pre-2014 borders and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia that would be backed up by international troops.
Hegseth made the comments during the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration. Allies have been waiting to hear how much continued military and financial support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government.
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What they heard was that President Donald Trump is intent on getting Europe to assume most of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine, including a possible peacekeeping force that would not include U.S. troops. Hegseth said the force should not have Article Five protections, which could require the U.S. or the 31 other nations of the NATO alliance to come to the aid of those forces if they end up in contact with Russian forces.
“There will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine,” Hegseth said.
Addressing the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth said Ukraine’s Western backers must abandon the “illusionary goal” of returning the country to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Members of this contact group must meet the moment,” Hegseth said to the group of approximately 50 member countries that have provided support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“We hear you,” U.K. Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said in response to Hegseth’s opening remarks. Both Hegseth and Healey spoke in front of the press at the top of what would be a closed-door session in Brussels to discuss future aid to Ukraine.
Over nearly three years, those 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the U.S., which has served as the chair of the group since its creation.
But the meeting this week was convened by the United Kingdom, and no decision has been made on who might chair the next meeting, if one is called.
Hegseth wasn’t expected to make any announcement on new weapons for Ukraine.
His trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Most U.S. allies fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t stop at Ukraine’s borders if he wins, and that Europe’s biggest land war in decades poses an existential threat to their security.
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to end the war quickly. He’s complained that it’s costing American taxpayers too much money. He has also suggested that Ukraine should pay for U.S. support with access to its rare earth minerals, energy and other resources.
Hegseth in his remarks said that NATO member nations also need to significantly increase defense spending to 5% of their budgets — a high mark that the U.S. does not presently meet either.
“The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependence. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security,” Hegseth said.
Some U.S. allies worry that a hasty deal might be clinched on terms that aren’t favorable to Ukraine.
Before Hegseth spoke, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told The Associated Press that Putin will only negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine if its backers continue to provide enough weapons and ammunition.
“We have to make sure that he has no other option, and that means to force him to the table,” Rutte said. “He needs to understand that we will not give up on Ukraine. We have to make sure that we have maximum economic impact on Russia.”
NATO is founded on the principle that an attack on any ally must be considered an attack on them all and met with a collective response. Membership is considered to be the ultimate security guarantee, and it’s one that Ukraine has been trying to secure for years.
European allies have hiked their military budgets since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, and 23 are estimated to have reached or exceeded last year the target of spending 2% of gross domestic product.
However, a third of members still haven’t reached that threshold, and Trump is almost certain to target them again. No NATO members have increased defense spending to 5% of GDP, not even Poland, which is the closest, spending more than 4% and expected to approach 5% this year.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Germany, Hegseth wouldn’t commit to having the U.S. increase its defense spending to 5% of GDP. He said he believes that the U.S. should spend more than it did under the Biden administration and “should not go lower than 3%.”
He said any final decision would be up to Trump, but added that “we live in fiscally constrained times” and need to be responsible with taxpayer money. The U.S. spends about 3.3% of GDP on defense.
NATO leaders are expected to agree on new spending targets at their next planned summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24 to 26.
Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Tara Copp is a Pentagon correspondent for the Associated Press. She was previously Pentagon bureau chief for Sightline Media Group.
