The head of the European Union's (EU) foreign policy, Kaia Kallas, said that communication between the United States and Russia shows that Moscow has not given up on its territorial goals in Ukraine. According to her, any attempts to "appease" Russia would send a dangerous signal to other aggressors around the world, "Reuters" reports, News.bg reports.
Last week, US President Donald Trump shocked European allies by organizing bilateral peace talks with Russia without the participation of Ukraine. This raises concerns that his approach to the conflict will favor Moscow.
"We understand from the interactions between Russia and the Americans that Moscow has not given up on its goals," Kallas said on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Johannesburg. "They want the maximum and more."
She stressed that excessive focus on mediation could be a mistake and efforts should instead be directed at exerting political and economic pressure on Russia to end the war.
Kallas recalled that Trump had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" and urged him to accept a peace agreement with Russia to avoid losing his country.
"At the moment, the fact that Russia does not want peace is somewhat ignored," she added.
Regarding the idea of sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, discussed by European leaders in Paris, Kallas believes it is too early to talk about such a step before a ceasefire is achieved.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy also commented that during recent diplomatic meetings he had not seen any desire on the part of Russia for peace talks with Ukraine.