{"id":168910,"date":"2025-08-23T10:27:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T10:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168910\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T10:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T10:27:27","slug":"putin-laughing-as-europeans-fall-into-his-trap-on-ukrainian-land-concession-says-kallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168910\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin \u2018laughing\u2019 as Europeans fall into his \u2018trap\u2019 on Ukrainian land concession, says Kallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By&nbspRomane Armangau<\/a>&nbspwith&nbspAssociated Press<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Published on
\n 22\/08\/2025 – 14:17 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned that calls for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia risk playing into a \u201ctrap\u201d set by Vladimir Putin, accusing the Kremlin leader of showing no genuine interest in peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview<\/a> <\/a>with the BBC on Friday, the EU diplomacy chief dismissed suggestions that Kyiv should compromise on land as part of a deal to end the three-year war, insisting that Moscow had yet to make \u201cone single concession\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discussion is all about what Ukraine should give up, what the concessions that Ukraine is willing to make, whereas we are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are the ones who are the aggressor here, they are the ones who are brutally attacking another country and killing people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kallas argued that rewarding Putin with Ukrainian territory would only embolden further aggression. \u201cThis is exactly the trap that Russia wants us to walk into,\u201d she stressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The comments come after US President Donald Trump last week met<\/a> Putin in Alaska before hosting<\/a> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several European leaders at the White House \u2013 including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While Trump has publicly called for an end to the fighting, Kallas questioned the Kremlin\u2019s willingness to engage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is just dragging feet. It\u2019s clear that Russia does not want peace,\u201d she said. \u201cPresident Trump has been repeatedly saying that the killing has to stop and Putin is just laughing, not stopping the killing, but increasing the killing and increasing the bombings on Ukraine. You can\u2019t possibly negotiate under bombs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Estonian politician underlined that any credible peace process must begin with a truce and be anchored in long-term guarantees for Ukraine\u2019s security. \u201cIt is not just truce or ceasefire but it has to be a long-term solution\u2026 that\u2019s why we are discussing security guarantees so Putin doesn\u2019t try again. The US needs to be part of them,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday, US President Trump said \u201cEurope is the first line of defence\u201d, adding \u201cbut we will help, we will be involved\u201d as he did not reject the idea of US peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kallas also called for tougher pressure on Moscow, pointing to the role of Western sanctions. \u201cThe Americans have the leverage with sanctions and tariffs to pressure Russia to negotiations,\u201d she said, adding that the EU is preparing its 19th package of restrictive measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking back at the Alaska meeting, she regretted that Putin already scored political wins. \u201cPutin got what he wanted. He wanted the picture<\/a>, but he got so much more. He got a welcoming in America and then he also wanted the sanctions not to be put in place, which he also achieved.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspRomane Armangau&nbspwith&nbspAssociated Press Published on 22\/08\/2025 – 14:17 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT The European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[69,96735,8697,120,50,3656,275,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-168910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu-policy","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-kaja-kallas","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","14":"tag-war-in-ukraine","15":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115077607864484755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}