EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas tells European Parliament U.S. negotiators have pushed Ukraine to surrender on Putin’s terms

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday that U.S. negotiators had been trying for roughly a year and a half to push Ukraine toward surrender on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms, arguing that European support had prevented Kyiv from accepting those demands.

Speaking during a European Parliament plenary debate in Strasbourg, Kallas said: “American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for already almost two years, one and a half years now.”

“Why Ukraine hasn’t surrendered on Putin’s terms is because Europe has been supporting Ukraine,” she added.

Kallas said Europe needed a seat at the negotiating table to balance Russian demands and ensure that issues such as sanctions were not decided without European participation.

She said she had presented EU foreign ministers with what she called a “maximalist plan” earlier this year, arguing that if Russia put forward maximalist demands, Europe should present its own demands in response.

Her remarks came as U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner joined a new round of Ukraine talks in Oslo involving President Volodymyr Zelensky and European and NATO officials.