“ILLUSIONARY GOAL”
Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the new administration’s bluntest statement so far on its approach to the war, saying it was unrealistic for Kyiv to hope to recover all of Ukraine’s territory occupied by Russia since 2014, as was securing its membership in NATO.
“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 a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
Russia in 2014 annexed Crimea, which Ukraine and many Western countries consider to be occupied Ukrainian territory.
Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”. But he said US troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.
Zelenskyy, hoping to keep Trump interested in continuing to support his country, has lately proposed a deal under which the United States would invest in minerals in Ukraine.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Kyiv on Wednesday on the first visit by a member of Trump’s cabinet, said such a mineral deal could serve as a “security shield” for Ukraine after the war.
Trump also said Rubio and Vice President JD Vance will hold talks about the war on Friday in Munich, where Ukrainian officials were expected to attend an annual security conference.
The new diplomacy followed a US-Russia prisoner swap that got underway on Tuesday, which the Kremlin said could help build trust between the two countries.
Russia on Tuesday freed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence in a Russian prison, in exchange for a Russian cybercrime boss imprisoned in the US, according to an official.
