Quotes
Members of this contact group must meet the moment,
Hegseth said to the assembled group of approximately 50 member countries who have been providing support to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion President Trump has been clear with the American people and with many of your leaders that stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a top priority. He intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table,
Hegseth said at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting in Brussels 2 percent is not enough. President Trump has called for 5 percent and I agree."
Calling for increased defense spending, he said Our message is clear, the bloodshed must stop and this war must end,
There will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine to further enable effective diplomacy and drive down energy prices that fund the Russian war machine,
If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission and they should not be covered under Article 5,
he said, referring to the alliance's mutual defense clause We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,
Hegseth told the meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,
The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,
To be clear, ... as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.”
A durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again,
The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognizing the reality of scarcity, and making the resourcing tradeoffs to ensure deterrence does not fail,
There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no" and that "Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees."
In an interview this week with The Guardian, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured because we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars,
I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth. And they've essentially agreed to do that. So at least we don't feel stupid. Otherwise, we're stupid,
The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must -- and we are -- focusing on securing our own borders,
