U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a “rookie mistake” when he said a return to Ukraine’s pre-war borders was “unrealistic,” Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker said Friday.
Hegseth on Thursday pulled back some of the comments he made about Ukraine a day earlier, where he said that NATO membership for Kyiv was off the table and that the country could not return to its internationally recognized borders.
“Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job,” the Mississippi Republican told POLITICO on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line.”
“I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool,” Wicker said, referring to the pro-Putin broadcaster.
Speaking to Jonathan Martin at the POLITICO Pub in the Munich conference, Wicker — a staunch Ukraine supporter — said he was “surprised” by Hegseth’s original comments and “heartened” that the new defense secretary had reversed course. Wicker said he favors a firm posture with Moscow.
“Everybody knows … and people in the administration know you don’t say before your first meeting what you will agree to and what you won’t agree to,” Wicker said, adding that he was “puzzled” and “disturbed” by Hegseth’s comments.
President Donald Trump this week held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war; Vice President JD Vance will meet in Munich Friday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Hegseth wasn’t freelancing. Trump on Thursday said there was a “good possibility of ending that horrible, very bloody war.” He also said it was not “practical” for Kyiv to join NATO and “unlikely” that Ukraine could return to its 2014 pre-invasion borders.
The direct talks between Trump and Putin have left European allies rattled that the EU and Ukraine could be sidelined in any peace deal.
Amid Trump’s talks with Putin, Wicker took a more hawkish stance that is in line with traditional Republican views. He called Putin a “war criminal who needs to be in prison for the rest of his life.”
He also said Russia should “absolutely not” be readmitted to the G7, an idea Trump floated on Thursday.
Trump this week suggested NATO enlargement provoked Russia to invade Ukraine, but Wicker didn’t agree.
“There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys,” Wicker said. “They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated. And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to it.”
Wicker has been one of the Senate’s chief advocates for Ukraine aid and pressed the Biden administration in its final days for a surge in U.S. weapons for Kyiv’s forces. He wanted President Joe Biden to pull out the stops and lift restrictions preventing Ukraine from using donated weapons to strike inside Russian territory and accused the former president of “slow-walking” deliveries.
Wicker has long framed the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a test of U.S. resolve, arguing that failing to arm Ukraine could force American troops into future wars.
On Friday, Wicker also called for the U.S. to continue weapons shipments to Ukraine “until there is a ceasefire.”
Source: Politico
