Main image: Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill on Dec. 3. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Image
The United States will not send its soldiers to Ukraine. Security guarantees must be provided by Europe, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated during a meeting in the "Ramstein" format.
He emphasized that a lasting peace in Ukraine must be backed by security guarantees to prevent the war from restarting. And these guarantees should not resemble Minsk 3.0.
"The U.S. does not believe that Ukraine's NATO membership is a realistic outcome of the negotiations. Instead, any security guarantees should be supported by capable European and non-European forces and means," Hegseth added.
He further clarified that peacekeepers should not be sent to Ukraine as part of NATO missions, as they should not fall under NATO's Article 5, which covers collective defense.
"Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European forces. If these forces are deployed as peacekeepers in Ukraine at some point, they should be part of a mission that is not a NATO mission and should not fall under Article 5 along the front lines," emphasized U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Moreover, Hegseth mentioned that a robust international monitoring mechanism should be in place.
"To be clear, as part of the security guarantees, U.S. forces will not be stationed in Ukraine," he said.
