No NATO Membership for Ukraine? US Defense Chief Hegseth Calls It 'Unrealistic'

Washington: Terming Ukraine’s aspiration for NATO membership as ‘unrealistic’, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Kyiv should also abandon hopes of winning its territory back from Russia. 

Maintaining the Trump administration over the conflict, Defense Secretary Hegseth said Ukraine should prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.

“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said. 

Hegseth's strident comments came during the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration. Allies have been waiting to hear how much continued military and financial support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government.

He further pointed out that NATO should play no role in any future military mission to police the peace in Ukraine. 

Conditions To Become NATO Member

All 32 allies must agree for a country to join NATO, meaning that every member has a veto.

“To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine,” Defence Secretary emphasized. 

Ukraine Pushing For NATO Membership 

Since the beginning of the conflict with Russia, Ukraine has been pushing the Western powers to trigger Article 5 of the NATO treaty and include Kyiv in the military alliance agreement. 

However, some of the Western powers have their reservations over the green signal to Ukraine in NATO. Countries like Germany suggest that such a move will drag them unnecessarily into the war and will deepen the conflict with Russia. 

Germany has clearly opposed Ukraine’s induction into NATO. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has voiced clear opposition to the plan proposed by Zelenskyy.

"It is important to realise that a country at war absolutely cannot become a member of NATO," German Chancellor Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF. "Everyone knows that, there is no disagreement on this subject."