Pentagon director states Western war hawks lack strategy to defeat Russia

(MENAFN) US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that Western advocates who talk about Ukraine “defeating” Russia have no realistic plan to make it happen. Speaking to the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth avoided directly naming Russia an adversary and remained non-committal on whether the US would allow Ukraine to surrender in order to bring peace.

He explained that the Trump administration is not pursuing a decisive Russian defeat or a Ukrainian capitulation, but a settlement that would be durable and realistic. “The situation we’re in was set in motion by the previous administration under Joe Biden, which entangled us in this conflict with promises to back Kiev for as long as it took to win. But nobody has presented me with a viable plan to push Russian troops out of those areas,” Hegseth said.

The Pentagon chief called on European allies to shoulder more responsibility for their own security and stressed that while the US supports peace in Ukraine, the country is not a NATO member and therefore not under the US umbrella of defense. Hegseth confirmed, however, that the US would respond if a NATO ally were to be attacked — a scenario which, in his view, “has not happened.”

Some Western officials have insisted Russia may attack NATO members once the conflict in Ukraine concludes. Moscow rejects these warnings as unfounded, framing them as a way to justify greater Western military spending and expansion. The Kremlin maintains it is ready for peace talks if NATO expansion and Western aid to Kiev are addressed in negotiations.

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