According to Kallas, the first step towards peace should be an unconditional ceasefire, but there are no signs that the aggressor country of the Russian Federation is ready for such a step.
“Russia is not dismantling its military machine, but is building it up. We still need to move from a situation where Russia pretends to negotiate to a situation where Russia will have to actually negotiate. We are moving in that direction,” said the head of EU diplomacy.
Kallas noted the significant impact of US and EU sanctions on the Russian economy and called for increased pressure on the Russian Federation.
“The idea that Ukraine will lose is also completely wrong. If Russia could conquer Ukraine militarily, it would have already done so. Putin cannot achieve his goals on the battlefield, so he will try to achieve them in negotiations,” the European diplomat emphasized.
Callas made the statement amid negotiations on a “peace plan” for Ukraine.
Context
Bloomberg wrote that the 28-point plan, which was agreed upon by US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin's special representative for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev, was not accepted, because it had many contradictory aspects. After a response from Ukraine and European partners during negotiations in Geneva on November 23, the Russian-American document was changed, reducing it to 19 provisions.
The White House released a statement after the negotiations that the amended draft peace agreement reflects Ukraine's national interests.
After the meeting of the US and Ukrainian delegations in Geneva, negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation were organized in Abu Dhabi. The United States assesses peace negotiations with the Russian Federation as “successful,” the media emphasized.
The White House said on November 25 that the United States had made “tremendous progress” towards a peace agreement by inviting Ukraine and the aggressor country of the Russian Federation to the negotiating table. They noted that “there are several delicate, but not insurmountable, details that need to be resolved” and “which will require further negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the United States.” Thus, CNN named three key points of the “peace plan” on which there is still no agreement between Ukraine and the United States.
On November 25, Trump expressed the opinion that agreements to resolve the war of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation against Ukraine are very close. The head of the White House instructed Witkoff to meet with Putin in Moscow, and US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll with the Ukrainian side in Kyiv in order to finalize the “peace plan.”
On November 26, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that there were no concessions from Moscow “there is no question.”
