US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the start of the Ukraine Defence Contact group meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 12 February 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET

The new US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, has used his first appearance at a Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Brussels to deliver an uncompromising assessment of the war in Ukraine and to inform the other members of the NATO alliance that US global priorities had shifted away from Europe.

While Hegseth said that the Trump administration wanted to see “a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine”, he stressed the importance of recognising that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders” was “an “unrealistic objective” and warned that chasing such an “illusionary goal” would “only prolong the war and cause more suffering”.

Hegseth further sank any Ukrainian hopes by adding that the United States did “not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”, and that instead of Kyiv ensuring its future security through its long-stated aim of joining NATO, it would fall to “European and non-European troops” deployed as part of a non-NATO mission that was not covered under Article 5 to do so.

Shortly after Hegseth’s speech, it was confirmed by the Kremlin that Trump and Putin had spoken by phone in what was described as a “lengthy and highly productive” call on Wednesday, capping a bitterly disappointing day for Ukraine and for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in particular, whose mantra that there should be no discussion “about Ukraine without Ukraine”, now lies in tatters before a stunned Europe.