MUNICH — The European Union’s top diplomat said that any talks between the United States and Russia were now “obsolete” following a drone strike at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant that Kyiv blamed on Moscow.
“It clearly shows that [the Russians] don't want peace,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “All these other talks have been totally obsolete because of the bombing of the nuclear station, bombing of civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure.
“What is up to us right now is to decide and discuss how we support Ukraine right now in this endeavor because our values haven't changed, the goals of Russia haven't changed either, so we need to stick to our ground and really see what is at stake here.”
Earlier this week at the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Kallas had accused U.S. President Donald Trump of “appeasement” following his conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and stressed that any peace deal must be negotiated with European and Ukrainian involvement.
Trump’s Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to meet Friday during the three-day conference in southern Germany. Zelensky told journalists on Friday that he did not believe Washington had a “ready-made plan” to end the war.
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, has long been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. During her premiership, Estonia donated more aid per capita to Ukraine than any other country, at 3.55% of GDP.
She has said Trump was right to criticize Europe for only spending an average of 1.9% of GDP on defense, saying it was “clearly not enough” in comparison to Russia’s 9%.
Kallas told The Moscow Times on Friday that Washington and Europe needed to provide similar messages about supporting Ukraine and ending the war.
“I hope to keep united with our American allies, because it's Iran, Russia, also North Korea, but more covertly China teaming up against us, so we need to stick to our ground,” she said.
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