By JAMES REYNOLDS and CHARLIE SPIERING, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON, DC

Speaking to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the NATO HQ in Belgium, Hegseth sought to clarify Trump‘s positions on whether NATO should accept Ukraine as a member, Europe’s role in Ukraine’s defense, and territorial changes.

‘Honesty will be our policy going forward,’ Hegseth stated during his speech on Wednesday.

He repeated that Trump was committed to ending the war and bringing about a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine.

‘The bloodshed must stop and this war must end,’ Hegseth said.

But he caveated that a return to pre-war borders was an ‘illusionary goal’ that would ‘only prolong the war and cause more suffering’.

Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine – Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 – though it does not have full control over them.

Putin said last year that a deal would hinge upon Ukraine’s recognition of Russia’s claim to four regions in its east and south, including areas not currently controlled by Russia.

Zelenskyy has rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to secure the return of some territory.

In an interview with The Guardian yesterday, he stressed that that Europe will not be able to completely meet Ukraine’s military needs or provide adequate security guarantees without US involvement.

Kyiv has expressed in the past that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments – such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops – will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.

NATO is founded on the principle that an attack on any ally must be considered an attack on them all and met with a collective response. Membership is considered to be the ultimate security guarantee, and it’s one that Ukraine is trying to secure.

Zelenskyy said last month he would speak to the leaders of Britain and France to discuss a plan that would see troops from both countries stationed in Ukraine to held uphold and oversee a ceasefire agreement.

But speaking on Wednesday, Hegseth ruled out  the idea of NATO accepting Ukraine as a member, or sending U.S. troops as peacekeepers to uphold a ceasefire.

‘Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,’ he said, adding that ‘to be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.’

The comments play into Putin’s hands, with Moscow opposing both Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and the proposal to deploy NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Europe will fear the dangerous precedent of allowing a belligerent dictator to absorb territory through wars of aggression on its border.

But most pressingly, the demand to find cash and aid for Ukraine will hamper smaller economies.

The U.S. State Department reported last month that the U.S. had contributed $65.9bn towards helping Ukraine since February 2022, over three years.

American GDP last year alone was around $29trn.

By comparison, Britain, with a GDP of around £3.34trn ($4.15trn), has shelled out an average of about £4.3billion a year for Ukraine, equivalent to around 0.14 per cent of GDP.

Ukraine’s security needs and defense spending are set to be discussed on Thursday.

European allies have hiked their military budgets since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, and 23 are estimated to have reached or exceeded last year the target of spending 2% of gross domestic product.

However, a third of members still haven’t reached that threshold, and Trump is almost certain to target them again.

Recently, Trump called for NATO members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, a level that no member has reached so far – not even Poland, which is the closest, spending more than 4% and expected to approach 5% this year.

Despite this, Hegseth wouldn’t commit to having the U.S. increase its own defense spending to 5% of GDP. The U.S. spends about 3.3% of GDP on defense.

He said on Tuesday that he believes that the U.S. should spend more than it did under the Biden administration and ‘should not go lower than 3 percent.’

NATO leaders are expected to agree on new spending targets at their next planned summit, in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24-26.

Hegseth also warned Europe that the United States would have to do more to defend itself in the future, citing ‘stark strategic realities’ of their priority to compete with China.

His two days of talks in Brussels are part of a flurry of visits to Europe by top US officials, culminating with Vice President JD Vance meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a security conference in Munich on Friday.

A British military think-tank warned today that the demands placed on NATO allies by the U.S. were ‘unachievable at this time’.

‘With budget pressures in most European countries continuing, sustaining increased spending is likely to be challenging,’ the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

The annual Military Balance report noted that European defense spending surged by 11.4 percent in real terms last year, but the rise looks unlikely to continue.

Germany’s defense expenditure rose a whopping 23 percent in 2024 to $86 billion, according to the yearly assessment of the militaries and defence economics of over 170 countries.

German defense budget is now the largest in Europe, ‘surpassing that of the UK, which has been the largest spender in Europe and the second largest in NATO for the last three decades,’ the IISS said.

The IISS said Europe currently accounts for less than one third of total NATO defence spending, with its share at $442 billion.

Raising Europe’s commitment to three percent of GDP would see the figure grow by more than $250 billion, and by almost $750 billion if five percent is achieved, the study said.

‘However, such figures are unachievable at this time, with some countries already using off-budget instruments to bolster budgets,’ the think-tank said.

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