Russia
doesn't want peace and Putin is 'just laughing' at Trump's demands to stop
killing, EU's Kallas says
EU
foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
earlier today.
She
asserted that “Russia does not want peace,” as she accused Russian president
Vladimir Putin of not keeping any promises and “just laughing – not stopping
the killing, but increase the killing, … the bombings on Ukraine.”
“You see
Europeans, Ukrainians, Americans wanting peace, and doing all the diplomatic
efforts to achieve that, whereas Russia is just dragging feet, it’s clear that
Russia does not want peace.”
European
Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for
a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels
in June. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP
She also
called for more EU and US sanctions and tariffs against Russia, saying:
“It is
very clear that any promises that Putin has been given so far, he hasn’t kept,
and we have to treat it as such, but [we] also [have to] make all the efforts
in really pressuring him to come to the negotiation table.
And there
we have different tools. The Americans have leverage with the sanctions or
tariffs to pressure Russia into negotiations. We are working on our 19th
package of sanctions on the European side to really put the pressure on Russia,
the one who is, who is doing the aggression here.”
Kallas
also argued that Putin got “what he wanted” from the Alaska summit with Trump,
getting not just the picture with the US president, but “so much more, such a
welcome in America, and … then he also wanted the sanctions not to be put in
place, which he also achieved.”
“So, I
think right now his interest is down, because he has achieved what he wanted
from this meeting,” she said.
She also
rejected speculations about Ukraine giving up parts of its territory, saying
“this is exactly the trap that Russia wants us to walk into.”
“[They
want] the discussion [to be] all about what Ukraine should give up, what is the
concessions that Ukraine is willing to do, whereas we are forgetting that
Russia hasn’t made one single concession. And they are the ones who are the
aggressor here.
They are
the ones who are brutally attacking another country and killing people there …
So let’s keep the focus there, where we have to keep it, to put the pressure on
Russia so that they would come to the negotiation table. And also, what kind of
negotiation concessions are the Russians making right now? They have just
increased their goals and wishes.”
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