The US Defense Secretary has signaled a major change in Washington’s attitude to the War in Ukraine during its first meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies.

Pentagon Manager Pete Hegseth spoke on Wednesday at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where he described a tough pivot in US policy after four years of former US President Joe Biden, while he maintained that the end in Ukraine remained “a top priority “.

He spoke just before US President Donald Trump announced that he had held his first conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he took office.

“Our message is clear: Blood output must stop and this war must end,” Hegseth said in an address to Ukraine Defense contact group, which includes all 32 members of NATO and other supporters of Kiev.

But he added, “We will only end this devastating war – and establish a sustainable peace – by linking allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield.”

This means that he continued, Ukraine must abandon his “illusionary goal” to return to its borders before 2014, with reference to the year when Russia seized the Ukrainian territories at Crimea and Donbas.

The war -held country must prepare for a negotiated solution with Russia, potentially supported by an international force without NATO, Hegseth said.

He added that Ukraine’s long-sinking membership in NATO-as Kiev has called essential until its long-term security-not “realistic”.

The statements were the clearest articles on how the administration of US President Donald Trump would approach the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Trump has repeatedly promised to raise a rapid end to the conflict, which has concerned that Kiev could be pressed to accept great concessions, including the loss of its Russian occupied territories.

The US president has also been a vocal critic of NATO and threatened us withdrawal while they repeatedly urge the members of the Block to increase their defense spending.

Reporting from Brussels, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said that the participants at Wednesday’s meeting had been eagerly waiting for Hegseth to “provide more information about the US commitment to Ukraine in the coming weeks and months”.

But “(it was) a deviation from what NATO and the Europeans were looking forward to hearing from the Americans today,” he said.

“Hegseth has said very clearly today that from now on, Europeans must understand that, given the strong geopolitical development globally, Americans will not be focused on Europe’s security,” added Ahelbarra.

“There are other challenges, and at the peak of that agenda, China’s growing economic and military effort is globally, which Americans want to counteract.”

Europeans must give “overwhelming proportion”

As part of the broader American change in politics, Hegseth said that European countries “must provide the overwhelming proportion of future mortals and non -—leal support to Ukraine”.

For almost three years, approximately 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $ 126 billion in weapons and military assistance. The United States provided approximately $ 64 billion of it during the Biden administration.

Hegseth also repeated Trump’s claim that NATO members must increase their defense spending and echoes a call to increase the allocation to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), far beyond the 2 percent they had already undertaken.

This interest rate is probably impossible for most countries to meet, reported Ahelbarra, given that most European countries “are still struggling to reach 2 percent”.

The Pentagon Manager also offered a new vision for Ukraine’s long-term security, which he said would not include Ukraine eventually joined NATO.

Biden administration had basically supported Ukraine, which joined the block if certain reforms were fulfilled, despite concern that such a movement could draw the alliance in a broader war.

According to Article Five of NATO, an attack on a member is considered an attack on all members and triggers a common military response.

Hegseth said “all security guarantees must be supported by capable European and non-European troops”, not supported by Article 5 protection.

Every squad exputation in Ukraine, he added, must be “part of a non-NATO mission”.

“To be clear, as part of all security guarantees, there will be no US troops placed to Ukraine,” he said.

Hegseth spoke shortly before Trump announced on Wednesday that he had held his first conversation with Putin.

“As we both agreed on, we want to stop the millions of deaths that took place in the war with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump said in a social media post, he was sure that he was sure that negotiations were to end the war to be successful.

The two leaders agreed to visit each other’s counties, he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said on Wednesday that he had had a “meaningful” conversation with Trump.