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.
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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