Pete Hegseth will not attend a rally of 50 countries to coordinate military support for Ukraine, several European officials and an American official have declared – the first time that the coalition will meet without the US Defense participation.
The group will meet on April 11 in Brussels and will be chaired by Germany and Great Britain. Hegseth attended the last meeting in February, although he became the first US Secretary for Defense during the 26 Coalition meetings not to direct him.
Hegseth will not join in person and do not expect to join practically either, according to an American official, who, like the others, has obtained anonymity to discuss planning. In fact, it is unlikely that the Pentagon will send main representatives, who generally join the secretary during these trips.
The United States is always evaluating how its officials will participate in the various forums that support Ukraine, including those who help manage assistance and security training, said the US official.
For Europeans, the absence of the secretary is the last sign of the lower priority approach to the Trump administration to arm Ukraine – a point that Hegseth clearly indicated in the last meeting in February.
In a Brussels speech, Hegseth reprimanded European officials, urging them to take more control of their own defense rather than relying on the 75 -year -old American role to help defend the continent. He also excluded the possibility of NATO members for Ukraine before the administration itself made a decision on the subject-which the president of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Called a “recruit error”.
“President (Donald) Trump will not allow anyone to transform Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker,” said Hegseth, referring to a quote from former president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Hegseth’s predecessor Lloyd Austin founded the Ukraine defense contact group shortly after Russia’s large -scale invasion in 2022. Since then, the group has contributed to increasing and coordinating more than $ 126 billion in Ukraine security aid, of which about half came from America.
During the three years that followed, the group has become synonymous with both Ramstein air base, where it was founded and American leaders. The only time Austin did not attend one of the group’s meetings was the beginning of 2024, when it recovered from complications after treatment against cancer. Instead, he called the summit and asked Celeste Wallander, a senior Pentagon policy, summons the group.
Feeling the United States can go back from its role, European officials already provided for alternative formats when the group met for the last time during Biden administration, Walander said in an interview. One of the arrangements discussed was that Germany and the United Kingdom take the lead, representing European economic power and one of its most competent soldiers.
Although the Ukraine group can continue to meet without American leadership, Wallander said, there would be real costs. US Defense officials, as well as the military counterparts of the US European Command, generally led information sessions on the state of war and how it relates to the battlefield needs of Ukraine.
Without them, the group would lack key American information, which European officials are already preparing. At the end of February, after a disastrous visit to the oval office by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the United States stopped sharing information with Ukraine and paused with arms deliveries for a week.
The Pentagon has another 3.85 billion dollars to send Ukrainian military equipment, but there is no more money to replace it. Congress leaders said they did not intend to pass more.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon journalist at Defense News. He previously covered the national security of the Monitor Science Christian. He holds a baccalaureate in English and the government of the college of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
