{"id":238553,"date":"2025-02-14T04:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/trump-putin-call-was-no-betrayal-of-ukraine-hegseth-says\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T04:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T04:44:08","slug":"trump-putin-call-was-no-betrayal-of-ukraine-hegseth-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/trump-putin-call-was-no-betrayal-of-ukraine-hegseth-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Putin Call Was \u2018No Betrayal\u2019 of Ukraine, Hegseth Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/13\/multimedia\/13ukraine-russia-blog-hegseth-jwcf\/13ukraine-russia-blog-hegseth-jwcf-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Trump-Putin Call Was \u2018No Betrayal\u2019 of Ukraine, Hegseth Says\" title=\"Trump-Putin Call Was \u2018No Betrayal\u2019 of Ukraine, Hegseth Says\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday defended President Trump\u2019s conversation about Ukraine with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, saying it was \u201cno betrayal\u201d of Kyiv even though no representative of that country took part.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/12\/us\/politics\/trump-putin-call-russia-ukraine-war.html\" title=\"\">call on Wednesday, which<\/a> Mr. Trump characterized as the beginning of a negotiation to end the war in Ukraine, was the first known conversation between the Russian and American leaders since Mr. Trump returned to the White House last month. It has raised concerns among some European leaders that Ukraine could effectively be sidelined in any peace negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is no betrayal there,\u201d said Mr. Hegseth, speaking as he arrived for a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. \u201cThere is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace, a negotiated peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He said that only Mr. Trump, who held a separate call with Mr. Zelensky after he had spoken with Mr. Putin, was capable of convening the powers who could bring peace.<\/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\">The call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump raised alarm in part because Ukrainian and European leaders have repeatedly insisted that there should be no talks on ending the war in Ukraine that do not involve Ukrainian representatives. Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, reiterated that position when he arrived at the meeting in Brussels, saying it was crucial that Ukraine be closely involved in all talks on its future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Hegseth\u2019s remarks came a day after he said that the United States did not support Ukraine\u2019s desire to join NATO as part of a peace plan and that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/12\/world\/europe\/ukraine-war-hegseth-nato.html?smid=url-share\" title=\"\">a return to Ukraine\u2019s borders before 2014<\/a> \u2014 when Russia annexed Crimea \u2014 was \u201cunrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Thursday, he repeated calls for NATO members to increase their military spending beyond 2 percent of gross domestic product and aim for 5 percent, \u2014 saying that Europe needs to step forward in leadership and in providing security guarantees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Hegseth also offered a robust defense of the NATO alliance and America\u2019s role in it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAmerica is right alongside our allies in NATO to ensure we remain strong and that this conflict comes to an end,\u201d he said in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That message is likely to reassure NATO countries, who were rattled when Mr. Trump said during his first term that the United States might <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/14\/us\/politics\/nato-president-trump.html\" title=\"\">withdraw from the alliance<\/a>.<\/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\/13\/world\/europe\/hegseth-trump-putin-call.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday defended President Trump\u2019s conversation about Ukraine with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, saying it was \u201cno betrayal\u201d of Kyiv even though no representative of that country took part. The call on Wednesday, which Mr. Trump characterized as the beginning of a negotiation to end the war [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238554,"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\/13\/multimedia\/13ukraine-russia-blog-hegseth-jwcf\/13ukraine-russia-blog-hegseth-jwcf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14624,875,185531,163575,164732,168195,163751,164733,209,52,185394,1130,1021,128440],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238553"}],"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=238553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238555,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238553\/revisions\/238555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}