Media report that the Pentagon chief did not rule out transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine

A news story is spreading across social media claiming that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not rule out the possibility of transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

These claims reference an interview he gave to Breitbart News.

However, the actual article does not contain a direct quote from Hegseth regarding nuclear weapons.

Instead, the article first presents an editorial statement suggesting that he “did not rule out the transfer of nuclear weapons, but ultimately, the decision rests with President Trump.”

Following this, the only direct quote from Hegseth states:

“I am not here to declare what is possible or impossible. That is not my job. That is the president’s job. He is the leader, the master of negotiations and deal-making.”

Nowhere in his statements throughout the interview does Hegseth explicitly mention nuclear weapons. Additionally, the article does not provide the exact question he was responding to.

Breitbart News also noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously requested nuclear weapons from the West if Ukraine were not accepted into NATO. However, Trump’s representative, Keith Kellogg, had previously dismissed such a possibility, stating that the likelihood was “somewhere between low and zero.”