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Brussels.- United States Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, stated this Wednesday that the war in Ukraine will end "under the responsibility" of the American president, Donald Trump, while emphasizing that all NATO members must contribute to the allied initiative with which military equipment is purchased from Washington to send it to Kyiv.
"This war did not begin under President Trump's responsibility, but it will end under his responsibility," Hegseth declared during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting held today in Brussels.You may be interested in: Trump: "There will never be a Third World War"
At another point in his intervention, Hegseth said that if Russia's war against Ukraine does not end and "there is no path to peace in the short term, then the United States, along with its allies, will take the necessary steps to impose a cost on Russia for its continued aggression." "The (American) War Department is prepared to play its role, in a way that only the United States can do," he asserted. He assured that under Trump's "firm" leadership, the war in Ukraine will end. "The war must end. As we saw him do in Gaza and the Middle East, Trump knows how to forge peace, create opportunities in situations and scenarios where peace seems distant. Only he has the capacity for that," he emphasized. Hegseth also referred to NATO's initiative of the Priority Urgent Requirements List for Ukraine (PURL), with which allies purchase U.S. military material to send to Kyiv. He detailed that NATO allies have committed "more than $2 billion in security assistance through PURL since August". "Allies often say that Ukraine's security is synonymous with European security. Therefore, it is time for NATO allies to turn words into deeds through investments in PURL. All the countries at this table, without being taken advantage of", he commented. In a statement to the press alongside the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Denis Shmyhal, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that more than half of the Alliance countries have already joined the PURL initiative, and pointed out that "more than sixteen, seventeen allies" are now committed to this mechanism. For his part, Shmyhal stated during the contact group meeting that among the priorities for military equipment for his country in 2025 and 2026 are deliveries through PURL and also receiving long-range missiles such as the Tomahawk that the United States has. "We need to combine our deep strike drones with our partners' deep strike missiles, I urge this. I ask for this type of support," he declared. Furthermore, he specified that by 2026 Ukraine estimates it will need 120 billion dollars to finance its defense and that the country itself will be able to cover half of that amount. He asked that the other half be covered by his partners and for this he proposed that the countries that help him in Europe and other parts of the world dedicate "no less than 0.25% of their GDP to military support for Ukraine". He added that if it is not possible to raise those 60 billion dollars among European and non-European partners, the remaining option is loans backed by frozen Russian assets. He affirmed that Ukraine never wanted "this war", but wants peace, a peace "based on justice and International Law". "We appreciate all of President Trump's personal efforts to bring Russia to peace negotiations, but Russia still believes it can gain more influence with bombs," he explained. He pointed out that every night Ukrainian cities suffer attacks and that for this reason "authentic strong global pressure is needed in response to Russia's choice to continue with this war." The meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group was chaired by the defense ministers of Germany, Boris Pistorius, and the United Kingdom, John Healey. In a subsequent press conference, Pistorius stated that Germany is supporting Ukraine with around 9 billion euros this year and that this amount includes a 2 billion package that is being prepared. Healey said that, since London and Berlin took the lead of the contact group eight months ago, its members have committed more than £50 billion in military support to Ukraine. Shmyhal detailed that today he signed a memorandum with Germany to strengthen the cooperation of their defense industries and that another memorandum was also signed on an initiative of Nordic and Baltic countries to provide equipment and training to Ukrainian brigades in Poland.
