By Tannur Anders and Nellie Peyton
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday that interactions between the United States and Russia showed Moscow had not given up its territorial goals in Ukraine, and that appeasing it would send a dangerous signal.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked Europeans by arranging bilateral peace talks with Russia without including Ukraine, raising concerns that his approach to ending the conflict will benefit Russia.
“We understand from those interactions that they (Russia) have had with the Americans (that) … they haven’t given up their goals,” Kallas on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Johannesburg.
“They want to have the maximum and plus on top of it.”
She warned that “if we are giving everything on the plate to the aggressor, it sends a signal to all the aggressors in the world that you can do this”.
Kallas said that some countries were focusing too much on mediation when they should be putting political and economic pressure on Russia to end the war.
Trump on Wednesday called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a “dictator” and urged him to accept a peace deal with Russia or risk losing his country.
“The point right now that is somewhat overlooked is that Russia does not want peace,” Kallas said.
She added that it was premature to talk about sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine – something that was discussed by European leaders in Paris this week – before a ceasefire.
British foreign minister David Lammy said earlier on Thursday that he saw no appetite from Russia during the day’s meetings for peace with Ukraine.
(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Nellie Peyton; Additional reporting by Thando Hlophe and Tim Cocks; Editing by Tim Cocks and Sandra Maler)
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