Kaja Kallas, European Commission Vice-President and European Union foreign policy chief, has said interactions between the US and Russia showed Moscow had not given up its territorial goals in Ukraine
Speaking on February 20, Kallas added that appeasing the Kremlin would send a dangerous signal.
Her comments came after US President Donald Trump shocked Europeans a few days previously by arranging bilateral peace talks with Russia without including Ukraine. That had raised concerns his approach to ending the conflict would benefit Russia.
“We understand from those interactions that they [Russia] have had with the Americans [that] … they haven’t given up their goals,” Kallas said on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“They want to have the maximum and plus on top of it.”
She warned: “If we are giving everything on the plate to the aggressor, it sends a signal to all the aggressors in the world that you can do this.”
Kallas added that some countries were focusing too much on mediation when they should be putting political and economic pressure on Russia to end the war.
Trump on February 19 called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator and urged him to accept a peace deal with Russia – or risk losing his country.
“The point right now that is somewhat overlooked is that Russia does not want peace,” Kallas said.
She added that it was premature to talk about sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine – something that was discussed by European leaders in Paris a few days earlier – before a ceasefire.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said earlier on February 20 that he saw no appetite from Russia for peace with Ukraine.
