Donald Trump's administration does not intend to help Kiev defeat Moscow, but seeks a lasting peace, Pete Hegseth has said

Western officials who talk about Ukraine winning the ongoing conflict don't have a real strategy for defeating Russia, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, the Pentagon chief declined to directly say whether he views Russia as a "true adversary" or whether Washington would allow a "complete surrender of Ukraine" in order to secure peace in the region.

Instead, he insisted that the Trump administration was seeking a settlement to the Ukraine conflict that will last, not Kiev's surrender or Russia's defeat.

"The situation is unfortunate, unleashed by the previous administration," he said, referring to former President Joe Biden, whom Trump's team blames for entangling the US in the Ukraine conflict. Biden's government repeatedly vowed to back Kiev for as long as it took to defeat Russia militarily.

"But everyone that talks about winning and prevailing is yet to present to me a plan that's going to push the Russian army out of those territories," Hegseth added.

The Pentagon chief also repeated his earlier call for Europe to take greater responsibility for its own security. While he pledged Washington would continue to mediate peace efforts, he avoided confirming whether military aid to Kiev would continue.

"We support peace in Ukraine... Peace is in our best interests, but Ukraine is not in the US and not in NATO," he stated.

Hegseth acknowledged that peace efforts "are moving slowly." When pressed on whether he would advise Trump to respond if Russia "invades NATO," he confirmed that the US would be obligated to act under the bloc's Article 5, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. However, he emphasized that "Russia has not invaded NATO allies," dismissing claims that Moscow poses an immediate threat to the bloc.

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Many Western officials have asserted that Russia plans to attack NATO's European members once the conflict in Ukraine ends. Moscow has repeatedly rejected these claims as nonsense, dismissing them as scare tactics used to justify increased Western military spending. Russia has also maintained that it remains open to peace talks if the root causes of the Ukraine conflict are addressed, including NATO expansion toward its borders and Western support for Kiev's NATO membership.