President Trump said Wednesday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin “negotiations” on ending the Ukraine war.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said they will “work together, very closely.”
The president’s comments came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO it is “unrealistic” to hope for a return to the version of Ukraine’s borders that existed before Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Hegseth further said that the U.S. “does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome for a negotiated settlement.”
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine,” Hegseth said during a trip to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. “But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.”
The defense secretary told the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Belgium that chasing that “illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
Hegseth’s comments represent the administration’s first explicit acknowledgement of support for a peace deal that would involve Ukraine ceding territory to end the war as quickly as possible.
The defense secretary addressed fears that negotiations could embolden Putin by saying that “a durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war won’t begin again.”
However, he said that peace would not involve U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine.
The U.S. government has provided $65.9 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump campaigned on ending the war and having European countries step in to provide more assistance to Ukraine.
Hegseth told NATO he had traveled to Brussels to “directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe.”
“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must — and we are — focusing on securing our own borders,” he said.
Hegseth said Trump would look to further negotiations by unleashing American energy production to take away from Russia’s exports that help fund the war.
Hegseth’s comments come one day after Russia released Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was wrongfully detained in Russia more than three years ago. Fogel was released in an exchange with the U.S. that the Trump administration says is a step toward ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement.