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US Defense Secretary Hegseth outlined a new approach to supporting Ukraine, emphasizing a realistic assessment of battlefield realities and a shift away from direct NATO membership as a security guarantee. He proposed robust security guarantees through non-American peacekeepers and touted American energy production as a tool to pressure Russia. However, Hegseth stressed that European nations should bear the primary responsibility for Ukraine's military support.
Speaking at a NATO meeting in Belgium, the defense secretary said the U.S. would no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship with its allies.“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine,” Hegseth said in a speech during a trip to NATO ’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
“But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.”. “We will only end this devastating war — and establish a durable peace — by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield.”Hegseth’s remarks put meat on the bone of Trump’s radical departure from former-President Joe Biden’s policy. WhereasThe defense secretary is part of a high-level Trump team touring Europe this week, with allies eager to learn of how this ambitious plan might come about. Many Ukrainians are hopeful of the president’s ability to end the conflict; others fear his negotiations will force them to accept unfavorable terms and embolden Hegseth sought to allay these fears by saying that “a durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war won’t begin again.” However these guarantees should not be provided by way of giving Ukraine NATO membership, as it has long since desired, but by non-American troops “deployed as peacekeepers” to the country, he said. These personnel should not be deployed as a NATO mission, or covered by “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine,” he said. Trump will seek to pressure the Kremlin by “unleashing American energy production” and thus throttling Russian exports that fund its war machine, Hegseth said. But he made clear that European nations would be required to provide most of the military support for Ukraine — which is currently underwritten by Washington more than any other nation. He said he was in Brussels to “directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe,” he said. “The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must — and we are — focusing on securing our own borders.”Trump’s feared DOJ enforcer has a secret: He, too, investigated Jan. 6
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