US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said it is “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders, when Russia first took control of Crimea.
Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth said it would only be possible to establish a “durable peace” with a “realistic assessment of the battlefield”.
The US defence secretary also downplayed suggestions of Ukraine joining Nato and ruled out deploying US troops to Ukraine under any future security arrangements.
Kyiv has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has in the past rejected ceding territory as part of a peace deal.
Hegseth told the meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.
“But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the east and south.