Ukraine Not To Return to 2014 Borders: U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. X/ @GiveMeFiveNews
February 12, 2025 Hour: 10:39 am
He also stated that it is unrealistic for this country to join NATO.
On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it was “unrealistic” that Ukraine could return to its pre-2014 borders or join NATO as a result of a peace deal.
RELATED:
First French Mirage 2000 Jets Arrive in Ukraine
“We want, as you do, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine, but we must begin by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal. Pursuing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said at the start of a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine.
“Everyone here at the NATO headquarters was looking forward to hearing him provide some more details about the United States’s commitment to Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. On Ukraine in particular, Hegseth said that the Ukrainians have to basically forget about taking back Crimea and the Donbas region from Russia,” Al Jazeera journalist Hashem Ahelbarra reported from Brussels, Belgium.
“Number two, the Ukrainians have to forget for the time-being about joining NATO. Number three, if there is any deal, and if there are going to be any peacekeeping forces deployed, he said they will not be under NATO and American troops will not be deployed to Ukraine. It was a departure from what NATO and the Europeans were looking forward to hearing from the Americans today,” he added.
February 11 marked ten years since the Minsk Agreement process began, which was the first attempt to pacify relations between Ukraine and Russia. This anniversary comes on the eve of new negotiations between the parties that will be mediated by the United States.
“Whatever the new settlement process will be, it will not be a continuation or successor of the Minsk-2 format,” Boris Grizlov, Russian ambassador to Belarus, told TASS.
The 2014 Minsk agreement managed to stop large-scale military actions until 2022. That document, however, only postponed the resolution of the conflict. On that occasion, the negotiations took place in the Belarusian capital in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and the leaders of Germany, Angela Merkel, and France, Francoise Hollande.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
