Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv in any discussion of a settlement of the nearly three-year-old war against Russia.

At last week’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels, newly minted U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that the position of the U.S. government was that Ukraine will not join NATO.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said that any European security guarantees for Ukraine in a potential peace agreement with Russia would require backing from