WASHINGTON >> When military leaders from roughly 50 nations met in Brussels on Friday to discuss aid shipments to Ukraine, one was noticeably absent: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Instead of attending the gathering, the 27th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, in person, Hegseth dialed in and participated virtually.

It was the first time since the group’s creation three years ago that the Pentagon’s top civilian was not physically present for an in-person meeting of the group, as the Trump administration treats Ukraine less like a partner and moves closer to Russia.

President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to settle the war between Russia and Ukraine even before he was sworn in, and said that he could do it within 24 hours.

But ceasefire negotiations among the U.S., Ukraine and Russia have failed to yield an end to fighting that has led to the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Ukrainian and 150,000 Russian soldiers.

U.S. leadership of the contact group had provided a lifeline of arms and materiel for Ukraine’s armed forces, but the flow of goods has largely petered out since Trump’s second inauguration.

Ukraine particularly needs air-defense munitions, such as the Patriot missiles the United States previously shipped. That was brought into sharp focus last week when a Russian missile attack in central Ukraine struck near a playground, killing 19 civilians, including nine children.

Hegseth handed leadership of the contact group to Britain before its last meeting, held in February. John Healey, Britain’s defense secretary and now the group’s chair, led the meeting Friday with Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement that the officials discussed “progress towards achieving an enduring peace to the war in Ukraine and European nations leading efforts to support Ukraine’s defense.”

At a news conference after the meeting, Healey and Pistorius flanked their Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, and spoke positively but delicately about the United States’ commitment to supporting Ukraine.

“He took part, he addressed the auditorium with some, I would say, interesting and correct assessments,” Pistorius said of Hegseth. “In the future, in the weeks to come, we will see what’s going to happen with the U.S. participation, with the U.S. support.

“I am not able to have a look in the crystal ball,” Pistorius added. “We wait and see.”

In response to a reporter’s question about Trump’s priorities in sending an envoy to Moscow but not sending Hegseth to the contact group meeting, Umerov sidestepped the issue.

“U.S. has told us after the new administration stepped in that they will be beside Europe, beside Ukraine, but their focus will be in Asia-Pacific or in the Pacific,” Umerov said.