Russia seizes on Pete Hegseth’s ‘coded message’ at Zelensky peace talks

A senior Kremlin official has congratulated Pete Hegseth on his ‘Russian tie’ after the Defense Secretary was accused of sending a coded message of support to Russia.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy for investment and economic cooperation, took to X this week to applaud Hegseth’s controversial fashion choice.

Dmitriev posted a Russian flag emoji over a photo of Hegseth wearing a red, white and blue striped tie during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.

Putin’s aide followed up his tweet with a bizarre reference to QANON, a conspiracy theory that claims a secret ‘deep state’ figures within the Trump movement control the US government.

Followers of the theory often use the phrase WWG1WGA, which stands for ‘Where We Go One, We Go All’. Dmitriev tweeted this in response to Hegseth’s picture showing off his tie.

Dmitriev also appeared to mock JD Vance after the vice president denied that Hegseth was paying tribute to Russia, writing: ‘Or maybe he was wearing America’s colors.’

“Maybe it’s a good thing we have the same colors,” Dmitriev said.

Hegseth’s Russia draw fiasco came as Pentagon insiders told the Daily Mail that the Secretary was struggling with the toll of the job, so shaken that he often appeared to be ‘getting out of his skin’.

Dmitriev posted a Russian flag emoji over a picture of Hegseth wearing a red, white and blue striped tie during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, followed by a strange reference to QANON.

Dmitriev also appeared to mock Vice President J.D. Vance after he pushed back against claims that Hegseth was wearing a Russian tie

Dmitriev’s posts came after Trump was accused of bowing to Putin when he refused to give long-range Tomahawk missiles to Zelensky, and admitted he backed down after a phone call with the Russian leader later in the week.

Dmitriev’s jab at White House officials sparked a wave of backlash on X; because some users thought Russia was mocking the Trump administration after a week of high-stakes talks on the Ukraine conflict.

Trump has previously been open about sending Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, although Putin has warned such a move would escalate tensions between the US and Russia.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said: ‘I would say, ‘Look, if this war is not resolved, I’m going to send them Tomahawks.’

But after a meeting between the two leaders on Thursday evening, Trump appeared to downplay the possibility of Ukraine acquiring missiles that can reach deep into Russia and have a range of about 1,995 miles.

‘We need Tomahawks for the United States of America, too,’ Trump said, adding: ‘There’s a lot of them, but we need them. I mean, we can’t exhaust our country.’

Reports indicate that Putin told Trump during the call that supplying Tomahawks to Kiev ‘will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will seriously damage relations between our countries.’

The exchange also led another senior Kremlin official to mock Trump on social media, just as former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev imitated Dmitriev targeting the White House on Telegram.

Trump was accused by critics this week of bowing to Putin after refusing to give long-range Tomahawk missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky, and admitted he backed down after a phone call with the Russian leader later in the week

Medvedev, who has repeatedly provoked Trump on social media, wrote: ‘It has been said hundreds of times in a way that even the star-spangled uncle can understand that it is impossible to distinguish nuclear Tomahawks from conventional Tomahawks in flight.

‘How should Russia react? Definitely!’ Medvedev spoke on Telegram as if implying that Moscow’s response would be nuclear.

“We can only hope this is another empty threat… It’s like moving nuclear submarines closer to Russia,” he said, referring to Trump’s statement in August that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to come within range of Russia.

Trump had previously warned Medvedev, the “failed former president of Russia”, to “watch his words” after warning that the US risked all-out war with Russia.

“He is treading on very dangerous ground,” Trump said.

After his meeting with Putin on Thursday, Trump announced that he would soon meet the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war.

Following his meeting with Putin on Thursday, Trump announced that he would soon meet with the Russian leader (who met in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war).

The two also agreed that their top aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will meet next week at an unspecified location.

Trump, who brokered a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, said finding an end to the war in Ukraine was now his top foreign policy priority and expressed new confidence in the possibility of achieving it.

Trump stated that he would have two separate meetings with Putin and Zelensky and said that the two leaders would not be able to resolve their differences one-on-one due to their hostility towards each other.

“I will meet with President Putin… and tomorrow I will meet with President Zelensky,” Trump said at the White House on Thursday.

‘I mean we have a problem, they don’t get along very well… these two have a terrible relationship.’