Hegesh says he returns to the borders of Ukraine in 2014 ‘unrealistic’

The United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, said it is not “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its borders prior to 2014, when Russia first took the Crimean control.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth said it would only be possible to establish a “lasting peace” with a “realistic evaluation of the battlefield.”

The United States Secretary of Defense also minimized Ukraine suggestions that joined NATO and ruled out the deployment of US troops to Ukraine under any future security arrangement.

kyiv has repeatedly requested the NATO membership and in the past has rejected the territory assigned as part of a peace agreement.

Hegesh, who was appointed Secretary of Defense after Donald Trump returned to the presidency of the United States in January, told the meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

“But we must begin by recognizing that returning to the borders prior to 2014 of Ukraine is an unrealistic objective.

“Pursuing this illusory objective will only prolong war and cause more suffering.”

Russia attached the Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then supported the pro-ruse separatists in an armed insurgency against kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls around a fifth of the territory of Ukraine, mainly in the east and south.

Hegseth said that any lasting peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that war does not begin again.”

However, he said that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic result of a negotiated agreement.”

Instead, security guarantees must be supported by “European and non -European capable troops.”

“If these troops are displayed as maintains in peace in Ukraine at any time, they must be deployed as part of a mission that is not from NATO and should not be covered by article 5,” he said, referring to the mutual defense clause of the alliance.

Trump has constantly said that his priority is to end the war, which began with the large -scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine in February 2022. He has also criticized the expense of military aid for kyiv.