{"id":237353,"date":"2025-02-12T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/hegseth-says-return-to-ukraines-prewar-borders-is-unrealistic\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T15:41:10","slug":"hegseth-says-return-to-ukraines-prewar-borders-is-unrealistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/hegseth-says-return-to-ukraines-prewar-borders-is-unrealistic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth Says Return to Ukraine\u2019s Prewar Borders Is \u2018Unrealistic\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/12\/multimedia\/12ukraine-us-fgtm\/12ukraine-us-fgtm-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Hegseth Says Return to Ukraine\u2019s Prewar Borders Is \u2018Unrealistic\u2019\" title=\"Hegseth Says Return to Ukraine\u2019s Prewar Borders Is \u2018Unrealistic\u2019\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A return to Ukraine\u2019s pre-2014 borders is \u201can unrealistic objective\u201d and an \u201cillusionary goal\u201d in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump wants to accomplish, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday at a NATO meeting in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In his first meeting with NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Mr. Hegseth told them that Mr. Trump \u201cintends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But for Ukraine to try to regain all of the territory Russia has seized since 2014, as it insists it must do, \u201cwill only prolong the war and cause more suffering,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Hegseth also told the meeting that Mr. Trump expected Europe to bear more financial and military responsibility for Ukraine\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Europe, he said, must take more responsibility for its conventional defense and spend more money on its armed forces, up to 5 percent of national output, as the United States deals with its own security risks and the challenge of China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump, he added, does not support Ukraine\u2019s membership in NATO as part of a realistic peace plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After a settlement, \u201ca durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again,\u201d but that would be the responsibility, he said, of European and non-European troops in a \u201cnon-NATO mission\u201d unprotected by NATO\u2019s Article Five commitment to collective defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No American troops will be deployed to Ukraine, he said, and Europe should provide \u201cthe overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">European and alliance leaders have been anxiously waiting to hear what Mr. Trump\u2019s goals for a Ukraine settlement might be. Mr. Hegseth\u2019s comments, at the opening of a large grouping of nations that support Ukraine, will not come as a great surprise. But they mark a major change from former President Biden\u2019s policy that it was up to Ukraine to decide whether to make concessions in exchange for peace \u2014 which so far has meant preserving Ukrainian sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders, and supporting Kyiv in its effort to drive Russian forces out of all prewar Ukrainian territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">NATO has promised that Ukraine will one day become a member of NATO, but without specifying a date. Mr. Hegseth\u2019s comments would appear to put that date very far into the unforeseeable future, if it arrives at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His remarks will create political difficulties for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and are likely to please President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who since 2014, and especially with his all-out invasion three years ago, has occupied about 20 percent of the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Putin has demanded that Russia keep its occupied territories, that Ukraine not join NATO, that its military capacity be limited and that NATO enlargement should halt. He has said he is willing to join negotiations on a settlement with Ukraine, but only on his terms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To help bring Mr. Putin to the negotiating table, Mr. Hegseth urged lower energy prices, \u201ccoupled with more effective enforcement of energy sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United States \u201cremains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe, full stop, but the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So Europe must step up to take responsibility for its own conventional defense, he said, while implying that the American nuclear umbrella that helps protect NATO and Europe would remain in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He urged Europeans to keep their commitments on military spending and increase them. \u201cWe challenge your countries and your citizens to double down and recommit yourselves not only to Ukraine\u2019s immediate security needs, but to Europe\u2019s long term defense and deterrence goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Hegseth took no questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/12\/world\/europe\/ukraine-war-hegseth-nato.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A return to Ukraine\u2019s pre-2014 borders is \u201can unrealistic objective\u201d and an \u201cillusionary goal\u201d in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump wants to accomplish, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday at a NATO meeting in Brussels. In his first meeting with NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Mr. Hegseth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/12\/multimedia\/12ukraine-us-fgtm\/12ukraine-us-fgtm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6079,185050,163575,896,164732,3096,163751,103120,164733,49227,3950,52,11626,163574,128437,163486,163397],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237355,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237353\/revisions\/237355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}