In his first trip abroad, the new U.S. defense secretary told allies, including NATO officials, that a durable peace could only come “with a realistic assessment of the battlefield.”

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

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Ukraine’s desire to recover territory lost to Russia since 2014 an “unrealistic objective," during a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels on Feb. 12.