Europe should not 'walk into the traps that Russia is setting' on negotiating sequence, Kallas says EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned against the EU agreeing to Russia’s proposed sequence of talks on Ukraine, saying it would allow Moscow to “divert the attention away” from its actions and ultimately leave Europe “in a worse place.” She welcomed the US side “finally admitting what I said already one and a half years ago – that for any deal between Russia and Ukraine … you also need the Europeans.” “I hope that we are just not at the table, but we are actually also really influencing the outcome of these negotiations.” She said: “The most important is that we keep to our agreement that first the ceasefire, then peace agreement and then any kind of other talks … when Russia is still presenting their maximum demands, then we should also stick to the maximum demands and start to negotiate from there. … Kallas warned that there is a risk of Europeans “actually walking into the traps that Russia is setting” as Moscow is trying to “divert the attention away from that there is no ceasefire and actually [get us to] start to listen to their claims.” “If we walk into that trap that we start to discuss … the European security architecture, then I don’t think we are in a better place. We are actually in worse place.” She continued: “Let’s focus on what it is at hand. We have one aggressor and one victim. The aggressor does not have security concerns, as nobody has ever attacked them. They have attacked others. I mean, keep the focus, people.” Kallas is also very clear that she wants to be part of the EU negotiating team, saying she was appointed to represent Europe on foreign and security policy. “I know that the Russians don’t want me, but do we have a say on who is representing Russia?

No, we don’t.” She also said that ultimately she would not be “representing myself,” but bound by any mandate given to her by the 27. Slightly amused/frustrated with repeated questions on what’s holding up the EU with deciding on its representation, she eventually hits back with this line: “Well, we have institutions in place, so we can’t just send any person that has no institutional role like the Americans are sending. Clearly, we should not copy the same patterns.” Asked why she thinks the Russians do not want her to be involved in the negotiations, she says: “They don’t want [anyone] strong on the other side because they want to push their through their maximum demands, like they have always done. Because … their tactics is very clear: at first you present threats and ultimatums, you use force, and then you will just wait, because there will always be people in the west who will offer you something you didn’t have before. And every time you go further. So, of course, if you negotiate with anybody, you want the other side to be as weak as possible so that you can get what you want.”