Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted that Russia is the aggressor in that country’s three-year-old war against Ukraine even as he refused to state that it was in America’s interest for Ukraine to win the war and for Russia to lose.
Hegseth, who appeared before the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee to defend his department’s fiscal year 2026 budget planning, was asked by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell — the subcommittee chair and former Republican leader —to identify the “aggressor” and “victim” in the conflict, which started in February 2022 when Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine with the aim of toppling the democratically-elected government in Kyiv.
