Hegseth says return to Ukraine’s prewar borders is ‘unrealistic’

BERLIN — A return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is “an unrealistic objective” and an “illusionary goal” in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Donald Trump wants to accomplish, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday at a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine.

In his first meeting that included NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Hegseth told them that Trump “intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table.” But for Ukraine to try to regain all of the territory Russia has seized since 2014, as it insists it must do, “will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.

Hours later, Trump wrote on social media that he had a long phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and they had agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the war.

Hegseth, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said Trump expected Europe to bear more financial and military responsibility for Ukraine’s defense.

Europe, he said, must take more responsibility for its conventional defense and spend more money on its armed forces, up to 5% of national output, as the United States deals with its own security risks and the challenge of China.

Trump, he added, does not support Ukraine’s membership in NATO as part of a realistic peace plan.

After a settlement, “a durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again,” but that would be the responsibility, he said, of European and non-European troops in a “non-NATO mission.”

No U.S. troops will be deployed to Ukraine, he said, and Europe should provide “the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.”

Recently, Ukrainian officials have said that security guarantees to prevent further Russian gains would be their top priority in negotiation, perhaps even ahead of recovering all their lost territory.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, John Healey, Britain’s defense secretary, pointed to shared goals with the United States, including a durable peace in Ukraine, and increased European military spending and responsibility both for Ukraine and for its own defense.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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