Two key members of U.S. President Donald Trump's team – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz – declined to label Russia as an aggressor during a television interview on Sunday.
As reported by "European Truth," the agency Bloomberg shared this information.
Hegseth and Waltz avoided giving direct answers when asked whether the Russian Federation is an aggressor, framing the question as a distraction from Trump's diplomacy.
"My question is, do all these searches for blame and the pretense that they care make the world more likely?" Hegseth said during Fox News Sunday.
When asked if it is fair to assert that Russia unprovokedly attacked Ukraine in 2022, he stated, "It is fair to say that this is a very complicated situation." Under pressure, he did acknowledge that "the invasion of Ukraine" occurred but did not identify Russia as the aggressor.
Waltz, for his part, sidestepped the question when asked to recognize Russia as an aggressor and instead began comparing Trump and Biden.
On Fox News, Waltz stated that Trump is the "chief dealmaker." "He is the Commander-in-Chief. And only because of his strength are we in this position," said Trump's National Security Advisor.
It should be noted that, according to some reports, Donald Trump's administration requested Kyiv to withdraw a draft resolution from the UN General Assembly condemning Russia's full-scale aggression and demanding Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory.
The U.S. introduced its own resolution, which is significantly weaker in content and does not label Russia as an aggressor.
Media reports also indicated that the American side is opposing calling Russia an aggressor in a joint G7 statement being prepared for the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.