Don’t rely on us for protection from Putin, US tells NATO allies

Britain and Europe will ‘step up’ support for Ukraine, Britain’s Defence Secretary has vowed after coming under pressure from the US.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, with British counterpart John Healey at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Picture: AFP

Britain and Europe will “step up” support for Ukraine and security of the eastern flank, Britain’s Defence Secretary has vowed after coming under pressure from America to take on a new leadership role.

President Donald Trump’s Defence Secretary told his counterparts in NATO that America could not be relied upon to guarantee the security of Europe because the US had to focus on its own borders and the threat of China.

Pete Hegseth used his first speech on the world stage to warn the US was no longer “primarily focused” on European security and other allies would have to take the lead in defending Ukraine.

Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, John Healey, the British Defence Secretary, responded, saying: “We heard his call for European nations to step up. We are and we will.” He also chaired a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, an international coalition of Ukraine’s backers, with the 31 other defence ministers from NATO, for the first time.

Following a bilateral meeting with Mr Hegseth earlier in the day, he announced the UK would spend £4.5bn ($8.9bn) on military aid for Ukraine this year.

In total, the UK has handed over £8.4bn worth of weapons, including Storm Shadow long-range missiles and Challenger 2 tanks.

On Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), the British Ministry of Defence confirmed the Gravehawk air defence system would be delivered to Ukraine’s front lines. The innovative short-range system uses Ukraine’s stockpile of Soviet-era infrared-guided missiles to shoot down drones and missiles.

In a speech before the bilateral meeting, Mr Hegseth ruled out using US troops to uphold a peace deal in Ukraine as he laid down Mr Trump’s red lines and demands. He said any European or British troops that did deploy would not be part of a NATO mission and would not be covered by the alliance’s Article 5 guarantee, which means they could not rely on the US coming to their defence.

In a shift on US policy, the Pentagon chief also downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO and said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders.

He said he was “here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.

“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must – and we are – focusing on securing our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific.

“As the United States prioritises its attention to these threats, European allies must lead from the front.”

He went on to say the US would “no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritise empowering Europe to own responsibility for its security.”

The language had been toned down from a draft briefed in advance earlier in the day, although it was still described by one UK government source as “quite punchy”.

Mr Hegseth, a former Fox News host and military veteran, was on a two-day trip to Europe as part of a flurry of visits this week by top US officials.

Mr Healey said: “We hear your concerns … We have work to do.” He also appeared to push back, saying: “We know our responsibilities. We are doing more of the heavy lifting.”

A Whitehall source said that Mr Healey told Mr Hegseth during the bilateral meeting that “European nations are already stepping up on defence and on Ukraine”. He told Mr Hegseth “the way to secure a durable peace in Ukraine was for Europe and the US to put them in the strongest possible position”.

Some NATO allies are concerned that if the UK does not stand up to the US when it comes to some of its more controversial policies, then no one else will.

Talks in Brussels will culminate in JD Vance, the US Vice-President, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky at a security conference in Munich on Friday. Mr Zelensky has cast doubt on the plan for Ukraine, saying that European assurances alone were not enough.

In Mr Hegseth’s opening remarks, he said the world was at a “critical moment” and Mr Trump had been clear the war in Ukraine must end and the bloodshed must stop. He said the war would only end, however, if allies took a “realistic assessment of the battlefield”.

This includes dropping any goal of a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders. “Chasing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said, adding that a durable peace must include robust security guarantees to ensure the war would not begin again.

The Times