Trump called the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO impractical

The idea of Kiev joining the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) is impractical. This was announced on February 12 by the American leader Donald Trump during his speech at the swearing-in ceremony of Tulsi Gibbard as the new Director of US National Intelligence at the White House

Thus the US President commented on the statement of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that Ukraine 's accession to NATO is unlikely.

"It's true. I think long before President [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, they [the Russian Federation] were saying that under no condition would they allow that to happen," Trump said.

Trump also noted that it would be possible to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine in the "not too distant future." In addition, the president said that the return of Ukraine to the borders that were in 2014 is almost impossible.

In addition, the American leader said that Kiev will have to hold elections in the country sooner or later. Also, the US President noted the low level of trust in Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky by Ukrainians.

Then Trump added that the US plans to continue to support Ukraine, but only if there are guarantees of protection of all invested funds. The US President specified that the head of the US Treasury Department Scott Bessent should soon bring from Kiev a document that would guarantee the return of all spending to Ukraine.

Washington Off: Trump administration is pulling back on support for Ukraine

The meeting of the contact group in the Ramstein format was chaired by the UK for the first time

Earlier in the day, Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group (UDCG) in Brussels that Washington does not consider Kiev's accession to NATO a realistic outcome of the peace process. At the same time in Kiev expressed dissatisfaction with the words of the American Secretary of Defense about the unrealistic nature of Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.

The day before, Trump said in an interview with Fox News channel that as a result of close contacts of the White House administration with Moscow and Kiev over the past week it was possible to achieve significant progress in the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. The US president also added that he did not plan to help Kiev gratuitously.

In January, Alexander Konkov, an associate professor of the political science department at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestiya that NATO had no special interest in accepting Ukraine into the alliance. At the same time, most countries have a hidden interest in resisting the inclusion of this country in NATO in every possible way, because otherwise it will lead to difficulties.

Ukraine applied for NATO membership on September 30, 2022. Then the Ukrainian leader specified that in fact the country is already in the alliance and meets its standards. Russia opposes Ukraine's accession to NATO.