EU warns against Ukraine peace deal without European involvement
Any agreement to end the war in Ukraine without the involvement of Ukrainians and Europeans is bound to fail, EU Foreign Policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.
"If an agreement is made behind our backs, it simply will not work. With any agreement, you need the Europeans and the Ukrainians to implement it," Kallas said ahead of a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels.
Her comments followed a conversation between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin regarding possible negotiations.
Trump and Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday and agreed to begin immediate talks to end the war in Ukraine. According to Trump, a face-to-face meeting with Putin could take place soon in Saudi Arabia. However, there is no indication that European leaders will be included in these discussions.
A spokesperson for European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the Trump-Putin conversation as "the beginning of a process". She pointed to the upcoming Munich Security Conference, where Von der Leyen, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US vice president JD Vance will be in attendance.
Historical parallels
Kallas compared the situation to the 1938 Munich Agreement, when the UK, France and Italy allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland. "I think that if you want to make comparisons, the parallel can be made with 1938," she said. "An appeasement strategy doesn't work."
"Why are we giving them everything they want before the negotiations have even started?"
Concerns were further heightened by statements from the Trump administration on Wednesday, which ruled out a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders and dismissed the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine or US military involvement in the conflict.
Kallas strongly opposed this stance. "We cannot rule anything out before the negotiations have started because that only plays into the hands of Russia, and that is what they want," she said. "Why are we giving them everything they want before the negotiations have even started?"
On Wednesday evening, Kallas met the Foreign ministers of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK in Paris. After the meeting, they reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and insisted that Europe and Ukraine must be involved in future negotiations.
European Council president Antonio Costa echoed this sentiment in a social media statement on Thursday, saying: "There will be no credible and successful negotiations, no lasting peace, without Ukraine and without the European Union."
European ministers meet in Paris for talks about Ukraine, 12 February 2025 © PHOTO CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP
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