EU Signals Plan to Limit Russian Army in Ukraine Deal
Although Brussels is not directly involved in US-mediated Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations and has historically avoided diplomatic talks with Moscow, Kallas told reporters that she is compiling a list of conditions and expects Europe to influence the outcome.
“Everybody around the table, including the Russians and the Americans, needs to understand that you need Europeans to agree,” she said. “And for that, we also have conditions. And we should put the conditions not on Ukrainians… but on the Russians.”
Kallas stressed that the focus should be on Russia’s military, not Ukraine’s forces: “The Ukrainian army is not the issue. It’s the Russian army. It’s the Russian military expenditure. If they spend so much on the military they will have to use it again.” Her office plans to circulate the proposed list to member states in the coming days.
From Moscow’s perspective, the current conflict stems from the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kyiv and NATO’s subsequent involvement with Ukraine’s military, as the new government prioritized joining the US-led bloc. In early 2022, Russia and Ukraine reached a draft peace deal that would have made Ukraine a neutral state with a limited military, but Ukraine abandoned the agreement under pressure from Western nations to pursue a battlefield victory.
Russia views the EU as a key obstacle to a realistic resolution, arguing that continued European support emboldens Kyiv to make unacceptable demands. Some Western European countries have even proposed deploying troops in Ukraine as a “security guarantee,” a suggestion firmly rejected by Moscow.
EU officials acknowledge that their support for Ukraine would be ineffective without US backing, and some leaders have suggested reopening diplomatic channels with Russia to shape the outcome. French President Emmanuel Macron recently warned that the United States could dictate terms for Europe, including decisions about when Ukraine might join the EU.
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