Meeting with Ukraine’s network of international backers in Belgium on Feb. 12, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that retaking all territory that Ukraine has lost to Russia since 2014 is an unrealistic war goal and insisted that Europe must take on a greater share of the burden of supporting Ukraine.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said as he met with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
Ukraine’s borders have been in flux since early 2014, when the country’s president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, was driven from power. Yanukovych had been on friendly terms with the Russian government and had faced intense street demonstrations after rejecting an agreement to expand economic ties with the European Union in late 2013.
In February 2014, just days after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, Russian forces seized control over the Crimean Peninsula. Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian secessionists sought to break from the post-Yanukovych Ukrainian government.
Russia and Ukraine have been in a direct full-scale conflict since February 2022, when Russian troops entered Ukraine in force. Since then, Russia has declared the annexation of four eastern Ukrainian provinces, and Russian forces continue to advance farther west.
With the third anniversary of the Russia–Ukraine war approaching, Hegseth said President Donald Trump’s focus remains on bringing the fighting to an end.
“He intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table,” Hegseth said.
Along with sharing doubts that Ukraine can reverse Russia’s post-2014 territorial gains, he pushed back on Ukraine’s calls to join NATO as part of a broader security guarantee to end the war.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said.
Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty, the foundational document of the NATO alliance, stipulates that the various alliance members are to treat an attack on one member as an attack on the whole alliance and commit to assisting the member that was attacked.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has opposed Ukrainian membership in NATO and warned that this idea would put the alliance in direct conflict with Russia.
By Ryan Morgan
