EU foreign policy chief Kallas dismisses Washington’s Ukraine peace effort

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday she hoped US negotiators who visited Kyiv over the weekend had seen for themselves that Russia is not genuinely interested in ending its war against Ukraine.

“I’m happy to see that for the first time the special envoys have also visited Kyiv,” Kallas told reporters in Vilnius. “What it meant for the Ukrainians was three days without bombing of civilians. I think that’s the positive side of this visit.”

“I hope that they also heard what the situation on the ground is and Ukrainians also showed them that Russia is not really interested in peace – the opposite,” she said.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend in a renewed effort to end the fighting.

Moscow and Kyiv agreed to suspend strikes while the negotiations were taking place.

Witkoff on Monday praised the weekend discussions in Moscow and Kyiv and suggested they could lead to a schedule for new three-way peace talks. The Kremlin also said Monday that it had not ruled out three-way negotiations involving the United States and Ukraine.

The talks remain complicated by disagreements over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, parts of which Russia does not control but which Moscow has demanded as part of a potential peace settlement.

Kallas said Europe cannot serve as a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine because it is directly affected by the conflict.

“In the end, when there is going to be a peace agreement, there are also a lot of asks for Europe to be very clear that these are not some things that we are giving without getting anything in return,” she said.

Kallas warns of growing Russian threat

During her visit to Vilnius, Kallas also warned that political parties in Europe that downplay the threat posed by Russia are gaining support.

Her comments followed an election victory by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in a state election Sunday.

Following a meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius, Kallas said sabotage and other security threats were moving closer to Europe.

“At the same time, the parties that are sort of blind to this threat and say that we should not do anything with this because it’s not our concern, are gaining ground,” she said.

“I’m just afraid that we might wake up in a situation where we haven’t done enough to be able to deter the threats and defend ourselves,” Kallas added. “But of course it’s up to the German people, as a democratic country, to make their choices.”

Sinkevičius said victories by far-right parties should serve as a warning to mainstream political forces that they are failing to meet voters’ expectations adequately.

“I would hope that such cases do not recur and that this does not become a new trend across European countries,” he said.

But he said the AfD’s victory in one German state would not affect relations between Germany and Lithuania.

“Germany has remained and will remain Lithuania’s most important strategic partner,” Sinkevičius said.