New U.S. defence chief rules out troops in Ukraine deployment
"To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine," said Pete Hegseth, the new U.S. Secretary of Defense, in Brussels.
Hegseth is currently on his first foreign trip as U.S. Secretary of Defence. The first stop was Germany, where he met, among others, with American soldiers stationed there. On Thursday, Hegseth arrived at NATO headquarters in Belgium.
The head of the defence department confirmed that U.S. troops will not be deployed in Ukraine. "But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," stated Hegseth at a meeting with NATO allies.
Pursuing this unattainable objective will only extend the conflict and lead to further suffering. For Ukraine to achieve lasting peace, strong security assurances are essential to prevent the war from reigniting. The U.S. Secretary of Defense emphasized that a repeat of the Minsk agreements is not an option.
