BRUSSELS: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.
Hours later, President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the Ukraine war. In a social media post that upended three years of US policy toward Ukraine, the Republican disclosed a call between the two leaders and said they would “work together, very closely.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said Zelensky and Trump also had a phone conversation.
Taken together, the statements by Trump and Hegseth offered the clearest look yet at how the new administration might try to end Europe’s largest land war in generations.
Hegseth’s warning to Ukraine that it should abandon its NATO bid and its push to reclaim all Russian-occupied territory signaled starkly to Kyiv that the administration’s view of a potential settlement is remarkably close to Moscow’s vision. Putin has declared that any peace deal must ensure that Ukraine gives up its NATO ambitions and withdraws its troops from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.
In sweeping remarks to allies eager to hear how much continued support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government, Hegseth indicated that Trump is determined to get Europe to assume most of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine, including a possible peacekeeping force that would not include US troops.
Making the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration, the defense secretary also said the force should not have Article 5 protections, which could require the US or the 31 other nations of the NATO alliance to come to the aid of those forces if they are attacked by Russian forces.
The secretary’s comments were sure to dim Ukraine’s hopes of making itself whole again and to complicate talks later this week between Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance and other senior American officials at a major security security conference in Munich.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said, as Kyiv’s backers gathered at NATO headquarters for a meeting to drum up more arms and ammunition for the war, which will soon enter its fourth year.
All 32 allies must agree for a country to join NATO, meaning that every member has a veto.
“Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” Hegseth said. “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.”
Other Western allies said the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO needs to stay on the table.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said NATO “is still the main guarantee of security for European countries.”
Asked about Trump’s phone call with Putin, Barrot said that abandoning Ukraine would “entrench the law of the strongest. It would be an invitation to all the world’s tyrants and despots to invade their neighbors with complete impunity.”
Hegseth insisted that NATO should play no role in any future military mission to police the peace in Ukraine and that any peacekeeping troops should not be covered by the part of NATO’s founding treaty that obliges all allies to come to the aid of any member under attack.
Article 5 has been activated only once, when European allies and Canada used it to help the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
Hegseth also said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.” Ukraine currently relies equally on Europe and the US for about 30 percent each of its defense needs. The rest is produced by Ukraine itself.
Speaking with the allies of Ukraine known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth also insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must abandon the “illusionary goal” of returning the country to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Members of this contact group must meet the moment,” Hegseth said to the approximately 50 member countries that have provided support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin “talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place” in the war.
Trump said the two leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
Zelensky said he had a “meaningful conversation” with Trump about “opportunities to achieve peace.” He said Trump shared details of his conversation with Putin.
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine,” Zelensky posted on X. “Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s get it done. We agreed to maintain further contact and plan upcoming meetings.”
Talking to reporters after the NATO meeting, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said Hegseth’s words would not go unheeded.
“We heard his call for European nations to step up. We are, and we will,” Healey said.
Healey underlined that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. That is a process that will take some time.”
He also announced that Britain would provide Ukraine with a fresh $187 million “firepower package,” including drones, tanks and air-defense systems.
Over nearly three years, those 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the US, which has served as the chair of the group since its creation.
Hegseth’s trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Most US allies fear that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine’s borders if he wins.
Trump has promised to end the war quickly. He’s complained that it’s costing American taxpayers too much money and suggested that Ukraine should pay for US support with access to its rare earth minerals, energy and other resources.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Kyiv to discuss a potential economic cooperation agreement with Ukraine that Trump is pushing as part of the foundation for a larger peace deal.
US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia
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US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia
- The statements by Trump and Hegseth offered the clearest look yet at how the new administration might try to end Europe’s largest land war in generations
Russia, US start talks on rare earth metals projects in Russia, RIA agency reports
Moscow and Washington have started talks on joint rare earth metals and other projects in Russia, the state RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Dmitriev, considered the most US-savvy member of Russia’s elite, was appointed by President Vladimir Putin in February as a special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation.
Tesla chargers torched in France arson attack
- There have been a number of anti-Telsa actions in the US and Europe since Elon Musk became Trump’s adviser and backed European far-right parties
SAINT-ÉTIENNE, France: Twelve Tesla electric superchargers were targeted in an arson attack in the carpark of a supermarket in central France, a police source told AFP on Sunday.
The fire broke out overnight Wednesday to Thursday in the town of St-Chamond in the Loire department, the source said, confirming a report in the regional newspaper Le Progres.
Two of the chargers, each worth tens of thousands of euros, were completely destroyed, while the others were damaged.
“Anti-Tesla campaign born to burn” was found painted in white on the car park floor.
The police source said it was “the first act targeting the business of billionaire American Elon Musk” in the Loire.
An investigation for “damage and destruction by fire” has been opened but no arrests had been made, the source added.
There have been a number of anti-Telsa actions in Europe since Musk became US President Donald Trump’s adviser and backed European far-right parties.
Earlier this month, a dozen Teslas were torched in an attack on a dealership near the southern city of Toulouse, leaving eight vehicles burnt out.
Another four cars were badly damaged.
A recent spate of attacks on Tesla property in the United States have been described by Attorney General Pam Bondi as “nothing short of domestic terrorism.”
EU open to ‘compromise’ on US tariffs, says Scholz
- Trump has announced sweeping tariffs on the United States’ allies and adversaries, including a 25-percent levy on auto imports starting next week
BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday said the EU would respond firmly to tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump but stressed the bloc was also open to compromise.
“It is clear that we, as the European Union... will react clearly and decisively to the United States’ tariff policy,” Scholz said ahead of the opening of a trade fair in Hanover.
But the bloc was “always and at all times firmly prepared to work for compromise and cooperation,” he said.
“I say to the US: Europe’s goal remains cooperation. But if the US leaves us no choice, as with the tariffs on steel and aluminum, we will respond as a united European Union,” Scholz said.
Trump has announced sweeping tariffs on the United States’ allies and adversaries, including a 25-percent levy on auto imports starting next week.
A 25-percent US tariff on steel and aluminum from around the world came into effect in mid-March, with EU countermeasures set to begin in April.
As a major car manufacturer and exporter, Germany could be hit particularly hard by the auto tariffs and they were the subject of a visit to Washington by Finance Minister Joerg Kukies last week.
Germany has vowed a tough response to the tariffs, with a government spokesman insisting that “nothing is off the table.”
However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni struck a more conciliatory tone on Saturday, calling for a “reasoned” approach to the escalating dispute.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also previously said she “deeply” regretted the US auto tariffs and the EU would “continue to seek negotiated solutions.”
Scholz on Sunday also insisted Canada was an independent country, responding to repeated comments by Trump that it should become the 51st US state.
“Canada is a proud, independent nation, Canada has friends all over the world and especially here in Germany and Europe,” he said at the Hanover trade fair.
Canada is a special guest at the event, which officially opens on Monday.
Beachcomber in France hunts fragments of migrant lives
- The item is one of many objects migrants leave behind when they board one of the small boats they hope will carry them to the English coast
GRAVELINES, France: The sand-covered notes outlining a migrant’s travel plan to a better life read like an itinerary of hope: from Ethiopia to Sudan, Libya, Italy, on to France and finally, England.
The document had traveled thousands of kilometers by the time it was picked up on a beach in Gravelines on France’s North Sea coast by a Belgian who likes to scour the beach in search of interesting things to collect.
Aaron Fabrice de Kisangani, 27, who calls himself a “beachcomber” and a “citizen scientist,” carefully unfolded the piece of paper that was soaked, dirty and covered in sand fleas, hoping for clues to the owner’s life.
The item is one of many objects migrants leave behind when they board one of the small boats they hope will carry them to the English coast. Sometimes they lose things in the hurry, and sometimes they throw them away deliberately, to travel light.
This is how shoes, clothes, bags and documents belonging to migrants end up strewn on northern French beaches, along with things left by fishermen and visitors.
Over the past two decades, Fabrice de Kisangani has made some unusual finds, including exotic plant seeds and shark teeth. He never used to pay attention to objects left by migrants, until about a year ago.
“I started to think, why don’t I take them, because otherwise they will be lost,” he told AFP.
The written notes he found probably belonged to an Ethiopian woman called Rose I., at least that is the name scribbled at the top of the page.
Rose meticulously listed cities, journey times and means of transport, drawing arrows between each entry.
The itinerary starts with “A.A.” for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Eight hundred kilometers (500 miles) and 17 hours by car later comes Metema, on the Sudanese border. “Ten minutes on foot,” Rose predicted, would take her to Gallabat on the other side.
Then on to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, followed by thousands of kilometers across sand, marked simply as “desert,” to Tripoli, in Libya.
Next came the voyage across the sea to Italy, followed by a train journey to France. And then, at last, the final destination: “UK.”
Fabrice de Kisangani found many other fragments of exile life during his morning search: a summons for a March 18 expulsion hearing for an Albanian in detention, or tickets from the Romanian capital Bucharest by plane to Paris, and then by train to Dunkerque in northern France.
These objects could help “humanize those people again,” because they tell “their story,” said Fabrice de Kisangani.
“I want to show the problem from another angle, as a beachcomber,” he said, admitting however that he has not worked out yet what exactly to do with the objects.
But in the meantime, the finds taught him “a lot” about the migrants, “about how they travel and how fast,” the beachcomber said, adding he often does research to find out more about their home countries and “why they are fleeing to the UK.”
Walking back to his car, Fabrice de Kisangani saw a scene playing out in the distance that has become commonplace around here: dozens of migrants emerging from the dunes and running toward a boat waiting in the water. At first they were stopped by police but, in another attempt a few minutes later, most managed to climb aboard.
A child could be heard crying. A man, one of three members of a family who didn’t make it, urged his mother to climb back off the boat, without success.
Such existential scenes, illustrating the undertaking’s fragility, are never documented in the objects jettisoned on the beach. The final pieces of the puzzle remain elusive.
Did Rose, the travel plan author, ever make it to England? Did she stick to her itinerary?
On this, the notes are silent.
US will not ‘get’ Greenland, island’s new prime minister says
- "We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post
- US President Trump has said he wants to make Greenland a US territory to protect it from Russia and China
COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Greenland will decide its own future and the autonomous Danish territory will not become part of the United States, its new prime minister said on Sunday, responding to Donald Trump’s latest comments about wanting the resource-rich island.
“President Trump says the United States ‘will get Greenland.’ Let me be clear: The United States will not get Greenland. We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.
“We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100 percent,” Trump said on Sunday in an interview with NBC News.
This latest exchange culminates a week of heightened tensions between the United States, Denmark, and Greenland, marked by Vice President JD Vance’s visit to a US military base on the vast Arctic island.
Danish diplomacy on Saturday criticized Vance’s “tone,” after he said Denmark “has not done a good job by the people of Greenland.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will be in Greenland from Wednesday to Friday to “strengthen unity” between the kingdom and its Arctic territory.
Four of the five parties represented in the Greenlandic Parliament reached an agreement on Friday to form a coalition government.
Greenland’s main parties all want independence, but they disagree on the roadmap. American pressure convinced them to form a coalition as quickly as possible with only the Naleraq party, which advocates rapid independence, declining to join.
