NATO ministers plead for Ukraine to be involved in Trump-Putin peace talks – POLITICO

“You also forget to mention that [Trump] also had a long phone call with [Ukraine] President Zelenskyy,” he said. “There’s a clear convergence emerging: We all want peace in Ukraine, rather sooner than later. We all want Ukraine to be in the best possible position.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s debut in Europe created quite a stir. On his first trip to Brussels since he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Hegseth told his counterparts Wednesday at the NATO headquarters that Zelenskyy had no chance of returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.

He also shut down hopes that Kyiv would join NATO, to which Zelenskyy replied: “I don’t think that these doors were really open,” in a pointed comment at past and current U.S. administrations.

On Thursday, Hegseth gushed over Trump’s efforts to deal with Putin.

“You saw from President Trump yesterday, who himself is the best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace, which is ultimately what everyone wants,” Hegseth told reporters.

However, several NATO defense ministers — including from Sweden, Estonia and Canada — also stressed that Ukraine should be involved in any peace talks.