Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared to be presenting all the “ultimate goals” of his invasion of Ukraine as the terms to agree to a temporary ceasefire, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has said.
EU foreign ministers debated a plan to significantly scale up the amount of military and financial support the bloc sends to Ukraine, during a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
The proposal seeks to get EU states on board to contribute more to bolster Ukraine’s defences, as the war with Russia enters a crucial point.
It aims to go farther than the €20 billion in military and financial support the EU and its member states provided to Ukraine in 2024, to potentially as much as €40 billion this year.
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Speaking on Monday, Ms Kallas said there was “broad political support” for the proposal to do more to help Ukraine on the battlefield. However, a lot of details still needed to be worked out, she said.
The EU discussions come as United States president Donald Trump is expected to speak with Mr Putin about a temporary ceasefire deal in the Ukraine war.
Ukraine said it would agree to the proposed 30-day truce, following pressure from the US that included pausing the flow of military aid and intelligence it sends to Kyiv.
Ms Kallas said Russian conditions to sign up to the ceasefire were similar to the “ultimate goals” of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Those conditions that they have presented, it shows that they don’t really want peace actually,” Ms Kallas said.
The Russian leader has spoken about keeping control of Ukrainian territory Russian forces now occupy, western economic sanctions on Russia being eased, as well as Ukraine dropping ambitions to join the Nato military alliance and holding fresh presidential elections.
Lithuanian foreign minister Kestutis Budrys said rather than making concessions, Mr Putin was only increasing his demands. “This is the strategic moment for Europe, decisions of today will shape the security of tomorrow,” he said.
Mr Budrys said the Baltic country supported the EU doubling its support to Ukraine to €40 billion this year.
In a post on X, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, said the far-right government there would not be contributing to the effort. “We will not be dragged into this, nor will we let Hungarian taxpayers’ money be used to finance arms supplies to Ukraine,” he said.
The proposal is designed to be funded by contributions from “participating” states, to get around the need for unanimity in EU foreign policy decisions, something that previously allowed Hungary to block the rest of the union sending military aid to Ukraine.
EU states’ contributions towards the Ukraine support package would be calculated based on their gross national income. Talks about the proposal are to continue when the leaders of the 27 EU states gather for a summit in Brussels on Thursday.
