Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is skipping the latest meeting of Ukraine’s allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels. That’s a first since the group was set up three years ago, the Associated Press reports. Hegseth will not join via video call-in, U.S. defense officials said.

“It is the latest in a series of steps that the U.S. has taken to distance itself from the Ukraine war effort,” AP’s Lita Baldor writes. While Kyiv defends itself from three-plus years of gradual Russian military invasion, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group has provided Kyiv with an estimated “$126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including over $66.5 billion from the U.S.,” according to AP. But “Hegseth has upended that position by stepping away from a leadership role, providing no new military aid and now

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