Russia paying ‘lip service’ to Trump with new peace plan, warns Kaja Kallas

Russia is merely playing “lip service” to Donald Trump by drafting a new peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, High Representative Kaja Kallas said on Thursday as she doubled down on calls for Europeans to have a seat at the table.

Her warning comes amid a whirlwind of reports about a 28-point blueprint apparently designed behind closed doors by the United States and Russia, without Ukraine’s input.

“Our position has not changed. For any peace plan to succeed, it has to be supported by Ukraine, and it has to be supported by Europe,” Kallas said after a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

“If Russia really wanted peace, they would have accepted the unconditional ceasefire offer already in March,” she added. “The EU has a very clear two-point plan: first, weaken Russia; second, support Ukraine.”

The alleged US-Russia peace plan is said to include highly disadvantageous terms for Kyiv, such as the complete surrender of the Donbas, which Russian forces have failed to entirely control, and limits on the size of Ukraine’s army and weapons arsenal.

Europeans were not involved in the initiative, which appears to have been led by Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s special envoy, and then passed to Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy.

Witkoff is a controversial figure in Ukraine and Europe due to his tendency to uncritically embrace the Kremlin’s talking points.

Kallas said ministers had discussed the reported plan during their talks on Thursday, but noted the room had remained “very calm” because “we have seen this before” – a reference to previous diplomatic attempts that disregarded Kyiv’s perspective.

Other representatives reacted with visible scepticism.

“We first need to get clarity on the status of these supposed proposals because, for the moment, we just know them from media leaks,” said Poland’s Radosław Sikorski.

“There can be no peace without Ukraine, and Europe has to be at the table,” said Sweden’s Maria Malmer Stenergard. “There are a lot of talks about different talks.”

Asked if she was worried that the White House would press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept the punitive terms, Kallas said that “the pressure should be on the aggressor” to bring the full-scale invasion to an end.

“We haven’t seen one single concession from the Russian side, and they are the ones who have started this war,” she said. “They are the ones who have invaded another country. They are the ones who are doing the killings of civilians in Ukraine.”

Though Ukrainians are interested in pursuing peace negotiations, Kallas added, the price cannot be to “give up your country”.

The latest reports coincide with a debate in Brussels on whether to use the immobilised assets of the Russian Central Bank to issue a zero-interest reparations loan to Ukraine, which could cover the country’s military and financial needs in the years ahead.

Such a loan has no precedent, and it would entail serious financial and legal risks. Belgium, which holds the bulk of the assets, has demanded complete solidarity and bulletproof guarantees to protect itself against the Kremlin’s retaliation.

Given its far-reaching implications, the final decision will be made at the leaders’ level. If there is no consensus by the end of December, the EU will have to resort to a bridging solution to prevent Kyiv from making painful budget cuts.

Kallas argued that one of the reasons why Russia is drafting new peace plans and putting on a “good face again” is because it is “afraid” of losing the assets, since under the proposed scheme, Moscow would recover the funds only if it provides compensation for the damage done by its full-scale invasion.

“The reparations loan is the most clear-cut way to sustain Ukraine’s defence. It is also the way to show Russia that time is not on their side,” Kallas said.

“Supporting Ukraine is a bargain compared to the cost of Russian victory.”