Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to solely blame Russia for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine on Sunday, telling Fox News he believed the situation was more complex. As his boss, President Donald Trump,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and changes at the Pentagon.

Two percent is a start, as President Trump has said, but it’s not enough, nor is 3%, nor is 4% — more like 5%,” the defense secretary said in a speech in Brussels.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. will no longer be the "primary guarantor of security in Europe," which he said must step up to secure Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a group of European leaders that restoring Ukraine's pre-2014 borders was an 'illusionary goal.'

Obama officials and Trump critics spoke harshly of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he took returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders off the table in peace negotiations with Russia.

Speaking at a NATO meeting in Belgium, the defense secretary said the U.S. would no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship with its allies.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other allies of President Trump won't state a plain fact about the war. Politics has a way of making simple truths harder to tell.

Hegseth also said Wednesday that Ukraine returning to its prewar borders—before Russia annexed Crimea in 2014—would be “unrealistic,” effectively forcing Ukraine to cede territory to Russia in another striking reversal of the U.S. and NATO’s previous position regarding the former Soviet territory.