The Trump Administration has made it clear to Volodymyr Zelensky what their plans are for Ukraine: it will not join NATO, there will be no US soldiers in Ukraine, and any peace process involves letting go of the 2014 borders, which included Crimea as part of Ukrainian territory.
Beyond statements like Ukraine "may someday be" part of Russia, as mentioned by the US President himself yesterday, or Trump's statements that he has already spoken with Vladimir Putin, what has been made evident today is the country's course of action in the coming months. And the one responsible for conveying this has been the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, during his first intervention at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and just before the Munich Security Conference taking place this weekend. The intentions are clear.
"We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine, but we must start 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," stated the Pentagon chief regarding Crimea's territory.
"The United States does not believe that Ukraine's entry into NATO is a realistic outcome of a negotiated agreement. Instead, any security guarantee must be supported by European and non-European troops," he added regarding Zelensky's desire for the country to join the Alliance to defend against future Russian aggression.
And "if these troops are deployed as peacekeeping forces in Ukraine at any point, they must be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission," he continued. "To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will be no US troops deployed in Ukraine," he concluded. The messages leave little room for doubt, although with the Trump Administration, it is always possible for one thing to change to another in a short period of time.
In his awaited and significant intervention, Hegseth did not overlook another of Trump's key issues: Defense spending. Just like the President has done, the Pentagon chief has once again set an unattainable goal of 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which in Brussels is seen as a strategy to substantially increase their investment and establish, for example, a minimum of 3% or 3.5%.