Hegseth at NATO: No U.S. Troops in Ukraine, America Prioritizing Our Border Security
“…the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spilled some hard truths at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters in Belgium. Here is his full speech. I extracted the important parts below the X post.
.@SecDef Hegseth: Returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering…The U.S. does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. pic.twitter.com/fSU352rMny
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 12, 2025
President Donald Trump takes European security seriously, but the administration has to prioritize America’s borders and security, Hegseth told the group:
We’re also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.
The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must and we are focusing on security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indopacific. The US is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. Deterrence cannot fail.
For all of our sakes, as the United States prioritizes its attention to these threats, European allies must lead from the front together.
In other words, man up, Europe. America is tired of playing World Police.
I cannot wait for the left to call Trump Russian dictator President Vladimir Putin’s puppet because Hegseth reiterated that the U.S. doesn’t support Ukraine joining NATO:
A durable piece for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. This must not be Minsk 3.0. That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.
Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article Five.
Look, if NATO had any serious intention of bringing in Ukraine, it would have done so a loooooooooong time ago.
I highly doubt Ukraine will ever join NATO in modern times. It would tick off Putin like no other.
I *sort of* agree with Hegseth’s analysis of pre-2014 Ukraine borders. I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. It intensified its invasion three years ago. The war has been going on for 11 years now.
Anyway, Hegseth stressed it is a pipe dream to think Ukraine can return to its pre-2014 border. He’s obviously mostly speaking about Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, and far east Ukraine:
We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.
Crimea might be a challenge, but I believe Ukraine could at least regain its far east borders.
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” but I believe Ukraine could at least regain its far east borders.”
And leave separatist ethnic Russians in the Donbass to be bombed and murdered by the Ukraine government again? You’re joking, surely.
Russian propaganda. If they want to leave then I expect that Ukraine would be happy to let them go.
“separatist.” Any country’s government has a right to respond to secessionists. We did the same 160 years ago..
Well then, in that case Ukraine itself is in rebellion from and seceded from Russia.
Ukraine has a long history as an independent country. It was forcibly annexed by Russia. That’s not the same thing.
Obama didn’t lift a finger when Russia annexed territory in the Ukraine–where was the left then? And Zelensky has lost $100 million in aid–he should get no more
*B*illion?
I love the idea of funding Ukraine just enough to allow them to continue to bleed Putin and Russia. Putin’s continued bellicosity would continue to stimulate Europe to spend more on defense which they should have been doing all along. Now if we could only find some way to get Russia and China to bleed each other,
Let’s see if Europeans feel the same way when Uncle Sugar Daddy Sams purse closes this year
“I love the idea of funding Ukraine just enough to allow them to continue to bleed Putin and Russia.
Do the Ukrainian people perhaps object to this Machiavellian scheme that you love so much? How convenient for you and Zelensky that we can’t find out, b/c elections in Ukraine are banned under the martial law that’s in effect.
“For as long as it takes….whoops!”
https://youtu.be/4FitzaWh1hA?si=KoFL5gkK58Niq8u8
Remember that NATO was created at a time when the USSR held all of eastern Europe in thrall, and commanded all of that region’s industrial, economic, and military might, which was added to its own. NATO, and US participation in it, was a necessity to assure the security of western Europe.
This is no longer the situation. Indeed, to a large degree, the balance has tipped the other way, as NATO now commands nearly all of Europe, and Russia is (regionally) on its own. US participation was necessary earlier because western Europe’s resources were not up to the task of containing Soviet aggression. Now that all (in and out of NATO) Europe is effectively aligned to defend itself against Russia, US participation is no longer necessary. Europe is a big boy now. It’s time for it to fend for itself. The US has already done its part to make this possible.
Yep. Add to that withdrawal of US troops from all of Europe.
We have a unique opportunity to eliminate the theatre of Russia to the world and thereby weaken China.
The Ukrainian war has exposed the weakness of the Russian military. We could easily defeat them with just AirPower backing up the Ukrainian army.
This wound send a message to China that we aren’t the paper tiger that we were with Quisling Joe. They can’t bribe their way out of trouble like they did with Quisling Joe.
This was the same basic bad choice the neocons drove in the early post Cold War era. They decided to cozy up to China and began poking the Russians in the eye. The Cold War is over. The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact are defeated. We won that more than 30 years ago. The Russians feel about Eastern Ukraine/Crimea the same way the USA does about the Panama Canal. They don’t want NATO up on their borders the same way we don’t want the CHICOMS operating the Panama Canal. Remember that NATO was created to oppose the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact (neither of which have existed in 3 decades) and one can begin to see how the Russians would be leery of NATO expanding eastward, especially given their history of being invaded.
None of that makes the Russians the good guys but it doesn’t make them the bad guys either. They are doing what they feel know in their Nation’s strategic interest… just as we should do. If the EU wants to go fight Russia good for them but it ain’t up to the USA to step into that.
There was a window after the fall of the USSR, to repair Russian relations and help them build a free society and we blew it. Slick Willie, wasn’t it?
IMO, it was an alliance of ‘conservative’ neocons, the phony ‘free traders’ and leftists. The neocon hacks scattered throughout gov’t, academia and think tanks had invested too much of their career in studying Russian/Eastern Bloc history, military, economics, culture and languages to let go of the Russian bone. They wouldn’t have a purpose or a clear job without keeping Russia as the bad guys. The fake libertarian ‘free traders’ wanted cheap labor and access to China’s markets and if cozying up to CHICOM IP theft, corruption, kickbacks and vast human rights abuses was the price they were happy to sell out middle-class American to get it. The leftists got to play footsie with CHICOMS in the open with the backing and encouragement of the US gov’t; see Tim Waltz.
I saw the fall of the Soviet Union as an opportunity to reach out to small Russian businesses. I spent a lot of money and was stymied by corruption. It just wasn’t possible.
Russian corruption more than anything stopped that. Putin has said all along that inviting Ukraine into NATO was red line and Obama’s people kept pushing and twisting laundering money and forcing a coup. That is why Putin invaded. The first step to peace is a guarantee by the WH that Ukraine will never be a part of NATO.
And how many ordinary people in the region would die in such a war? Why would you consign them to death?
Threat not theatre
Well, let’s see how much Europe cares when THEY are paying for the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded on 24 February 2022, Germany has provided aid to Ukraine worth 44 billion euros in total.
The UK has spent 12.8 GBP.
The U.S. has spent at least $175 billion USD.