Hegseth says return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders ‘unrealistic’

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said it is “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders, when Russia first took control of Crimea.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth said it would only be possible to establish a “durable peace” with a “realistic assessment of the battlefield”.

The US defence secretary also downplayed suggestions of Ukraine joining Nato and ruled out deploying US troops to Ukraine under any future security arrangements.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has in the past rejected ceding territory as part of a peace deal.

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