For the first time since the U.S. set up an international group three years ago to coordinate military aid to Ukraine, the Pentagon chief will not attend a meeting of more than 50 other defence leaders on Wednesday, the agency said.
‘Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who returned Sunday from a national security conference in Singapore, will not arrive in Brussels until Wednesday evening, after the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting concludes.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Hegseth would also not participate in the videoconference.’
This is the latest in a series of steps the US has taken to distance itself from military action in Ukraine, the publication noted.
The group, whose meeting Hegseth will skip, was created by his predecessor as head of the US Defence Department, Lloyd Austin, in 2022. ‘Since then, more than 50 EU member states have collectively provided Ukraine with about $126 billion worth of arms and military aid, including more than $66.5 billion from the United States’.
Under Austin’s leadership, the U.S. served as chairman of the group, and he attended monthly meetings with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which were held both in person and via video link.
Hegseth has reversed that position by stepping back from a leadership role, providing no new military assistance, and now refusing to meet at all,’ the agency summarised.
Since Trump took office, there have been no new announcements on US military aid and arms shipments to Ukraine. Hegseth also put the group’s leadership in the hands of Germany and Britain.
