US Secretary of Defense and US National Security Adviser avoid calling Russia aggressor in TV interview

Two key members of US President Donald Trump's team, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz refused to call Russia an aggressor in a TV interview on Sunday.

As reported by Bloomberg, Hegseth and Waltz avoided direct answers to questions about whether Russia is an aggressor, portraying the issue as distracting from Trump's diplomacy.

"My question is, does all the finger-pointing and pearl-clutching make peace more likely?" Pete Hegseth said.

Asked whether it is fair to say that Russia unprovokedly attacked Ukraine in 2022, he said: "Fair to say it’s a very complicated situation." Under pressure, he did admit that an "invasion into Ukraine" had taken place but did not name Russia.

For his part, Waltz evaded the question when asked to recognise Russia as the aggressor and instead began comparing Trump and Biden.

On Fox News, Waltz said that Trump is "the dealmaker-in-chief". 

"He’s the commander-in-chief. And it’s only because of his strength that we’re even in this position," Mike Waltz said.

According to some reports, the Donald Trump administration asked Kyiv to withdraw a draft UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's full-scale aggression and demanding that Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory.

The United States introduced its draft resolution, which was much weaker in content and did not name Russia as the aggressor. 

The media also reported that for the first time, the US side opposed naming Russia as the aggressor in a joint G7 statement being prepared for the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.