America will no longer front the lion’s share of aid to Ukraine, the Trump administration said today in a devastating blow to Kyiv that will pile pressure on Europe to fill the void.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Washington will ‘no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship’ with its allies, adding that ‘Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine’.
In a boon for Vladimir Putin, he added that the United States would not deploy troops to Ukraine under any peace deal with Russia – one of the key security guarantees requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Hegseth also said that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to a pre-war state, saying any peace process ‘must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective’.
‘The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defence partnership with Europe, full stop,’ he said. ‘But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.’
Washington’s allies have been waiting nervously for clarity from Trump’s administration after the he demanded that NATO more than double its defence spending target and vowed to end the war in Ukraine.
Hegseth’s comments will compound Ukrainian fears and hand leverage to Russia, after Trump suggested the country ‘may be Russian someday’ in unsettling comments during an interview with Fox News, aired Monday.
Trump maintains that he is in talks with both Russia and Ukraine, and had floated the idea of trading aid for access to rare Ukrainian minerals.
Speaking to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth sought to clarify President Donald Trump‘s positions on whether NATO should accept Ukraine as a member, the annexed portions of the country by Russia, and Europe’s role in Ukraine’s defense.
‘Honesty will be our policy going forward,’ Hegseth stated during his speech to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
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.
He said a return to pre-war borders was an ‘illusionary goal’ that would ‘only prolong the war and cause more suffering’.
Hegseth also ruled out the idea of NATO accepting Ukraine as a member, as President Trump works toward a diplomatic solution to the war.
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.
Hegseth’s comments play right into Putin’s hands, with Moscow expressing its opposition to the potential deployment of NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has also asserted Ukraine must end its ambitions to join NATO as part of a peace deal.
He 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.
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.
Hegseth was frank in his assessment on Wednesday: ‘The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.’
Hegseth also argued that European countries needed to do more to keep the peace in Ukraine, and that it should not be a part of an official NATO action.
‘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.’
Hegseth also warned Europe 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.
The news was met with concern in Europe. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted that the government’s commitment to Kyiv matters ‘just as much as it mattered at the beginning of this conflict’ amid uncertainty over the future of the war.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir was asked by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey to confirm that the UK and other European allies would give Kyiv enough support to prevent it being ‘bullied by Trump and Putin into accepting a deal which will effectively hand victory to Russia.’
Avoiding direct criticism of the Trump administration’s policy, Sir Keir said Britain would do what it could to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position’.
Russia continues to advance across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it has captured several settlements – mostly completely flattened by months of Russian bombardments – over the past year.
Moscow has also pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, claiming the attacks targeted facilities that aid Kyiv’s military.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian energy minister said the energy sector ‘continues to be under attack’, and Kyiv is ‘urgently apply emergency power supply restrictions’ to ‘minimize possible consequences’.
