Hegseth warns Moscow US will ‘impose costs’ if Ukraine war does not end

BRUSSELS – US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Oct 15 that the US and its allies would “impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression” if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end.

“If we must take this step, the US War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do,” Mr Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of Kyiv’s allies at Nato headquarters.

Mr Hegseth did not elaborate. His comments came as US President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a request by Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

‘Come to the peace table’

“Now is the time to end this tragic war, stop the needless bloodshed, and come to the peace table,” Mr Hegseth said.

“This is not a war that started on President Trump’s watch, but it will end on his watch.”

Mr Hegseth called on Nato allies to increase spending on purchases of US weapons for Ukraine, following a report that highlighted a sharp decline in Western military support for Kyiv in July and August.

“You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect,” he told reporters at Nato headquarters earlier in the day.

Mr Hegseth urged allies to ramp up investment in the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) programme, which replaced US arms donations to Ukraine and now requires allies to pay for US weapons deliveries.

“Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion.”

Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he expected further pledges, noting that US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) already had been committed through the mechanism.

However, this amount falls short of the US$3.5 billion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped to secure by October.

New aid pledges from Sweden, Finland and Estonia

Sweden, Estonia, and Finland pledged contributions on Oct 15. But bigger powers such as France and Britain have made no such commitments, despite Mr Hegseth urging all of Kyiv’s allies to contribute to the PURL programme.

“Now ... is the time for all Nato countries to turn words into action in the form of PURL investments. All countries around this table, no free riders,” Mr Hegseth said at the start of the Contact Group meeting.

Ukraine remains heavily reliant on US weapons as it braces for another winter of grinding conflict with Russia, which now holds around 20 per cent of Ukraine more than three-and-a-half years into its full-scale invasion.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy reported on Oct 14 that average monthly military aid to Ukraine fell by 43 per cent in July and August compared with the first half of the year.

According to the institute, most military support now flows through the PURL initiative, which by August had been joined by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. REUTERS