US war secretary threatens Russia

The US War Department stands ready to do its part and “impose costs” on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, War Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.

Speaking in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday ahead of a meeting of countries coordinating military support for Ukraine, he lauded NATO members’ recent militarization push.

“If this war does not end, if there is no path to peace in the short term, then the United States, along with our allies, will take the steps necessary to impose costs on Russia,” Hegseth said.

“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,” he added.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said he could supply Ukraine with US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles if the Ukraine conflict “is not going to get settled,” and admitted that it would be “a new step of aggression.”

The longer-range variants of the cruise missile can strike targets up to 2,500km (1,550 miles) away, potentially threatening the Russian capital and other cities.

Supplies of the missiles to Ukraine would represent a “new stage of escalation,” since US troops would have to be directly involved in using them, President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky wanted to use the Tomahawks to conduct “new terrorist attacks” against Russia “aimed at escalating the conflict.”

Moscow has blamed the pause in direct Russian-Ukrainian peace talks on Kiev, arguing that it lacks interest in a settlement, emboldened by Western military support.

“Russia is ready for a peaceful settlement,” but continues its military operation “due to the lack of alternatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Moscow appreciates Trump’s peace efforts, and hopes he can help “encourage the Ukrainian side to be more proactive and more prepared for the peace process,” he added.