Kallas in Warsaw: the EU will not implement any Ukraine deal it is not party to, ahead of the Abu Dhabi talks

EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said in Warsaw on 6 November that the European Union will not implement any agreement on Ukraine in which it has not taken part, days before US-led Ukraine-Russia talks are due to resume in Abu Dhabi.

She spoke at a joint press conference with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, held after an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Council of the Baltic Sea States and Ukraine. The European Commission’s audiovisual service lists the event as a press conference in Warsaw on 6 November.

What Kallas said

According to the remarks as reported, Kallas said: “Any agreement that we are not party of, we are not going to implement either.” She also said there can be “no legal recognition of Russia’s claim to occupied Ukrainian territory” and that any settlement must stop Russia from using a pause to rearm and attack again.

Kallas argued that the weight of pressure so far has fallen on Ukraine, which she called incorrect because, in her words, there is “one aggressor and one victim”. Concessions, she said, “should be on the aggressor, not on the victim”. She added that Vladimir Putin “does not have a veto over European security”.

Her practical argument was that key parts of any settlement, such as sanctions, frozen Russian assets, reconstruction and Ukraine’s path to EU membership, depend on decisions by European institutions.

Warsaw and Kyiv

Sikorski said a deal over Europe’s head would not just be unwise but “impossible” and called for a ceasefire before talks on European security arrangements. Sybiha said there can be no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine and none about European security without Europe; for Abu Dhabi, he listed security guarantees, de-escalation in the Black Sea, an energy truce, the return of abducted Ukrainian children and prisoner exchanges as Kyiv’s priorities.

Russia has taken the opposite view. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said European countries have no place at the negotiating table over Ukraine, according to press reports of the exchange.

Context

Europeans are not taking part in the Abu Dhabi round, which Geopolitiki reported as scheduled for 10-11 November (see Witkoff: new round of Ukraine-Russia-US talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, with a stop in Brussels first). NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said a clean victory for either side is unlikely (Rutte: A clean victory for Ukraine or Russia is unlikely – the war will end with a peace deal and a compromise).

Official source: European Commission audiovisual service, press conference in Warsaw, 6 November. Quotes are taken from reports of the press conference; no official transcript had been published at the time of writing.