The European Union has ruled out acting as a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine, with its foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas insisting the bloc remains firmly on Kyiv’s side.
Speaking after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Cypriot port city of Limassol on May 28, Kallas said Europe could not present itself as an even-handed broker in any future peace talks aimed at ending the Ukraine War.
“One thing is very clear: Europe will never be a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine, because we are on Ukraine’s side and we are defending our own core security interests,” she told journalists.
Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, argued the EU could not treat the two sides equally given its backing for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. Ukraine, she said, needed the bloc to rebalance negotiations and press Moscow for concessions.
Her comments came amid a debate over whether the EU should appoint a special envoy to help broker an end to the war, an issue that has divided member states and fuelled speculation over possible candidates.
The talks, held in the so-called Gymnich format, focused on what Europe should ask of Moscow in return for any easing of sanctions. Kallas warned her colleagues against being drawn into a guessing game over who might represent the EU, describing it as a Russian trap.
“It’s a trap that Russia wants us to walk into, that we discuss who talks to them, and they are already picking who is suitable, who is not,” she said. “Let’s not walk into that trap.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin had suggested former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder for the role, a proposal Kallas swiftly dismissed over his long-standing ties to Moscow. Other names floated have included Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Council President António Costa and former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Kallas stressed that any European effort would complement rather than replace that of Washington, after US President Donald Trump’s attempts to halt the conflict stalled. “We are not coming in instead of the United States,” she said.
Rather than naming a negotiator, she said, the EU should agree a common position setting out the concessions Russia must make and the red lines it must not cross, among them the non-recognition of Russian-occupied territories.
