Forcing Ukraine into premature peace negotiations with Russia risks securing a “bad deal” for Kyiv, the EU’s top diplomat has warned.
Speaking on Thursday ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said: “Any push for negotiations too soon will actually be a bad deal for Ukraine.
"All the other actors in the world are carefully watching how we act in this case and therefore we really need to be strong.”
Potential scenarios for a peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine, now approaching its third year, have been debated more intensely in recent weeks after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential elections.
During his campaign, Trump regularly touted his ability to bring about a swift resolution to the conflict, claiming he could end the war “within 24 hours” if given the chance, though he offered few specifics.
On Monday, Trump said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “should be prepared to make a deal” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the war, adding that he planned to speak with both leaders about a potential settlement.
“Got to be a deal. Too many people being killed,” Trump said.
On Thursday, President Putin claimed he was willing to engage in talks with Trump, saying: “We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises.”
However, pro-Ukraine EU leaders have said Kyiv’s negotiating position needs to be strengthened ahead of any peace talks.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on Thursday voiced similar views to Kallas, saying: “I hear some rumors in the air about possible peace negotiations and my opinion is that probably it's too early because right now Russia is in the offensive mode.
“If we will try to make something from this situation, it will not be a just and sustainable peace. It will be an unjust and unsustainable peace.”
‘RUSSIA IS NOT INVINCIBLE’
Meanwhile, Kallas said the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Moscow-backed regime in Syria demonstrates that “Russia is not invincible.”
“Syria shows us that Russia is not invincible and we shouldn’t underestimate our own power. We are a great power if we act together,” added Kallas, who was Estonia’s prime minister from 2021 to 2024.
