Pete Hegseth to skip meeting of Ukraine Defense Contract Group on organizing military aid

Hegseth will be heading to Brussels, but will arrive in the afternoon, after the morning meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group. This is the first time the US will not attend a meeting of the group the US created three years ago, at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the AP reports.

Hegseth will reportedly not attend via remote link, either. This comes as the Trump administration has sought to distance America from involvement in that war, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The meetings had been monthly under the Biden administration.

The group was created by Biden administration Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the US was joined by 50 other nations anxious to come to Ukraine's aid. Together, those nations gave Ukraine $126 billion in weapons, military assistance, and aid. More than half of that total came from the US.

President Donald Trump has been trying to bring that war to a close but has been prevented from doing so by the two recalcitrant presidents who lead the warring nations. The US was the chair of the group, but under Trump, Hegseth has stepped away from that top role and has also not provided any new aid to the war torn nation.

The AP notes that this "comes on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning at the security conference last weekend that the U.S. and others risk a dangerous double standard if their concentration on a potential conflict with China is done at the cost of abandoning Ukraine."