Fighting Estonian and NATO Secretary General Call on Westerners to Stop Putting Pressure on Zelensky – The Financial Times
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, writing in the British Financial Times, calls on Western leaders to stop pushing Zelensky towards peace talks with Russia.
"Western capitals should stop offering peace talks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and instead ensure that their promises to provide security guarantees to Kyiv are not 'empty', the EU's top diplomat has said.
Kallas also said it was "pointless" to press Zelensky to consider peace talks when she believes Russian President Vladimir Putin "has shown no desire to end the conflict."
"We cannot talk about peacekeepers when there is no peace. And why is there no peace? Because Russia does not want peace," Kallas told the FT.
The former Estonian prime minister spoke to the Financial Times ahead of a summit of EU leaders to discuss how Europe might adapt its support for Kyiv after Donald Trump's return to the White House.
On Wednesday evening, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held talks with Zelenskyy and a small group of senior EU leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. They discussed possible options for future European support for Ukraine.
Speaking before the meeting, Rutte convinced his listeners that talk of a peace agreement would only help Putin.
"If we start talking among ourselves now about what a peace agreement might look like, we're making it very easy for the Russians... I think it would be very wise to put an end to this and focus on the current affairs... to make sure that Ukraine has everything it needs to prevent Putin from winning," he said.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy met with the leaders of 27 EU countries. Following the meeting, they agreed on a statement pledging to support Ukraine "for as long as necessary and as intensively as necessary." "Russia must not gain the upper hand," reads the draft agreed upon by the negotiators, which was seen by the FT.
In turn, the American The Wall Street Journal, assessing Vladimir Putin's Thursday direct line, writes that the Russian president "signaled during his marathon television appearance that he is in no hurry to end the conflict in Ukraine."
“The Russian president appears to be in no rush to end the conflict in Ukraine. Instead, he has sought to demonstrate Russia’s strength, despite Donald Trump’s stated goal of achieving a quick peace,” the publication says.
With a month to go before Trump returns to the White House, Putin has shown no signs of worry despite the significant pressure being exerted on the Kremlin both on the front lines in Ukraine and beyond, the newspaper notes.
"Our fighters are recapturing square kilometers of territory every day," Putin said, adding that he was ready to talk or meet with Trump at any time, but said he was unaware of any plans for such a meeting because he and Trump had not spoken for four years.
The publication also draws attention to Putin’s words that if other countries pose a threat to Russia’s existence, Moscow considers itself entitled to use nuclear weapons against them.
Putin also dismissed Western skepticism about a new type of Russian missile called Oreshnik and called on Western countries to take part in a "high-tech duel of the 21st century," the article said.
“If Western experts believe so [that the Oreshnik can be shot down], then let them… identify some target to hit, say, in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with the Oreshnik… We are ready for such an experiment,” he said.