US defense secretary and national security adviser avoid calling Russia aggressor in TV interview

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

Source: Bloomberg, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Hegseth and Waltz avoided giving direct answers to the question of whether Russia is an aggressor, portraying the issue as distracting from Trump's diplomacy.

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

Details: Asked whether it is fair to say that Russia unprovokedly attacked Ukraine in 2022, Hegseth replied: "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.

Meanwhile Mike Waltz dodged the question when he was asked to acknowledge Russia as the aggressor and instead launched into a comparison of Trump and Biden.

Waltz told Fox News that Trump is the "dealmaker-in-chief". 

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

Background:

• According to some reports, the 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 presented its own 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 opposed Russia being named as the aggressor in a joint G7 statement being prepared for the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

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