Pushing Ukraine towards the negotiation table “too soon” would only lead to a bad peace deal that favoured Russia, the EU’s new foreign affairs chief has said.
The war in Ukraine was top of the agenda as the leaders of EU states met for a summit in Brussels on Thursday, where they also discussed the possible fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in the United States.
Kaja Kallas, who has taken over as the EU’s top representative on foreign affairs, said Europe should not “underestimate” its power when it came to the Ukraine war. The rapid collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, which for years had been supported by Russia, showed Moscow was “not invincible”, she said.
There was a struggle playing out between the forces of Russia, Iran and North Korea, who wanted a world where “might makes right” and those who backed a rules-based order, such as EU states, she said.
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Speaking on his way into the summit, Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof said continuing advances by Russian forces in Ukraine were “dangerous” for Europe. “We need to help Ukraine on the front lines. Peace through strength remains our motto. Ukraine has to get through the winter strong and have a strong position in the spring,” he said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy joined the initial portion of the EU summit that discussed the war in Ukraine. At a press conference afterwards, Mr Zelenskiy said any temporary ceasefire in the war would only “freeze” the conflict, rather than resolve it, which was not satisfactory.
“We want to finish the war. We want peace, a stable peace, it goes without saying that Russia is not interested in that,” he said. Mr Zelenskiy repeated his request for western allies to supply Ukraine with Patriot air defence systems to protect its towns and cities from Russian missile attacks.
Guarantees of Ukraine’s future security from Russia in the event of any settlement would need to be backed by Europe but also the US, he said. “It is very important for us to have both on board, the United States of America and Europeans.” Mr Zelenskiy said the bulk of Russia’s army was currently fighting on the territory of Ukraine, with the remaining forces defending Russia weaker and less well trained.
The closed-door meeting of EU leaders debated how Europe should best brace itself for what could be a turbulent four years of EU-US relations during Mr Trump’s second term.
Speaking before the meeting, German chancellor Olaf Scholz said his impression from talking to Mr Trump was that “good co-operation” between the EU and the US was possible.
Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said he had not yet seen any sign that Mr Trump would cut off the huge flow of military aid the US was sending to Ukraine. Prime minister of Luxembourg Luc Frieden said the future of Ukraine would not be settled in Washington. “It must be decided in Europe and firstly in Kyiv, with the EU and, of course, also with our US friends,” he said.
EU leaders agreed to back a commitment to urgently “step up” the amount of support being provided to Ukraine, without setting concrete targets.
A joint statement that was due to be agreed at the end of the summit criticised North Korea sending troops to fight alongside Russia on the battlefield as an “international escalation of the war”. The statement drafted for leaders to sign off on also said the fall of the Assad regime in Syria was a “historic opportunity” to reunite and rebuild the country.
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