Summary
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is “unrealistic,” signaling a shift in U.S. policy toward negotiated settlements.
Speaking at NATO headquarters, he argued that pursuing full territorial recovery would prolong the war and emphasized the need for security guarantees without NATO membership or U.S. troops in Ukraine.
Hegseth outlined Trump’s approach of reducing Russian war funding through increased U.S. energy production while shifting more military support responsibility to Europe.
“Putin’s puppet administration says NATO should cede everything to Putin, news at 11.”
Trump knows the proxy war in Ukraine is lost. The Ukrainians had their civil war, and the whole time one side was receiving weapons from NATO and the other side was receiving weapons from Russia. In the end they were unable to come to a unifying agreement, despite multiple peace talks.
Finally, Russia invaded directly and the Ukrainian side receiving their support disappeared from the news. Since Russia invaded we’ve been given this narrative that Putin wants territory, but it’s that side in Ukraine’s civil war that is leading its people to join Russia. They felt that was the better deal and would rather have security than reunify with the other half.
Ukraine is only shrinking because the NATO-backed side started the civil war. These are the consequences of refusing to allow the democratic process to play out. The NATO-backed side lost an election and then initiated a coup in 2014, kickstarting the destruction of their country. Fuck around, find out.
Oh great, another Putinbot spouting reams of misinformation.
Trying to clean up the whole mess from your firehose of bullshit is a fool’s errand, but here are a couple counterpoints for the benefit of anyone not already familiar with the relevant history:
The war in Ukraine was not “civil.” It was being waged by Russian troops acting as “separatists,” a disguise so thin that the only ones to buy it were on Russian state TV.
Every single escalation in the conflict was by Russia, ever since the hostile takeover of Crimea.
The military strength of Russia compared to NATO is so ridiculously lopsided that the only way Russia could possibly “win” is if they’re able to sabotage NATO from the inside, for instance by manipulating foreign elections enough to put a Russian puppet in charge.
https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2016/02/a-decisive-turn-risks-for-ukrainian-democracy-after-the-euromaidan?lang=en
Doesn’t look much like a healthy democracy to me.
And the 2014 coup being backed by Western powers appears to me to merely be a Kremlin talking point. Do you have any reliable source to backup that claim?
Russia has been waging imperialistic wars against its neighbours since way before Ukraine.
It will also continue to do so, since it managed to fuck up its economy so bad it can’t get back from a war economy.
Also, if anything this would still be a NATO victory even if it’s not a total Ukrainian victory. Russian military stockpiles are fucked, Europe is bringing back NATO with new funding, better cooperation and key new members.
We’ve got NATO lake and the Moskva is still sunk. Wonder how long it will take to rebuild it. Sanctions are not going anywhere either.
Europe is having energy problems. Germany especially is seeing its manufacturing capacity decline due to high energy costs. Before Russia intervened directly and the US forced Europe to enact sanctions, they were receiving gas from Russia at a discount and they were paying in Euros. Now they buy expensive LNG from Norway and the USA. They’ve replaced cheap energy with expensive energy.
If NATO hadn’t backed the coup to kick off the Ukraine war, Germany’s car manufacturing would be growing into the EV market instead of shrinking and hobbled. Old allies can’t catch a break.
New NATO countries are finding out that the US can’t afford vassal states like it used to. The Trump administration expects each country to pay for NATO military expenditures. Military budgets are increasing, and countries are trading financial sense to be allies with a declining American empire.
Meanwhile Russia is part of BRICS, an economic bloc that includes more than half the world’s population. And what is Trump’s response? Trump wants to go to war against the biggest economic bloc in world history. Trying to fight half the world in an economic war sounds like a losing strategy if I’ve ever heard one.