Europe should not give without getting anything in return in Ukraine peace deal: Kaja Kallas

Vilnius (Lithuania): Europe should not give without getting anything in return in any future peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said, stressing that any peace settlement would also involve commitments from Europe.

Kallas made the remarks during a visit to Lithuania on Monday (Local time) after US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend in renewed diplomacy to end the war.

At a joint press conference with Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius, Kallas was asked whether the weekend talks had brought peace closer and what a possible trilateral summit without an EU seat would mean for Europe’s ability to shape the outcome. She said Russia and Ukraine ultimately needed to talk directly to each other.

“On the European side, it is clear that we cannot be mediators between Russia and Ukraine. They need to talk to each other. We have always been on the side of Ukraine, so we are not neutral in this situation,” Kallas said.

She said that any eventual peace agreement would also involve “a lot of asks for Europe,” adding that these were not things Europe should give “without getting anything in return.”

Earlier on Monday, Kallas met Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and discussed Lithuania’s priorities for its upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union, reports Xinhua news agency.

Nauseda said Lithuania would focus on European security and defence, EU enlargement, competitiveness, internal security and social resilience during its presidency.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday, with the meeting lasting more than three hours. Witkoff and Kushner then met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday.

Additionally, Delegations from Ukraine, the United States and Russia previously held two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi on January 23-24 and February 4-5, followed by another round in Geneva on February 17-18, in an effort to find a path toward ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The trilateral negotiations subsequently stalled and have remained suspended.

IANS