EC on Trump – Putin call: Russia cannot be rewarded for its aggression

It is important to remember that Russia is the aggressor in the war in Ukraine and it cannot be rewarded for its aggression, a European Commission (EC) spokesperson said on February 13, responding to questions from reporters about the phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

The BBC reported that Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had “great talks with Russia and Ukraine yesterday”. There is a “good possibility of ending that horrible, very bloody war!!!” Trump said.

The Kremlin told the BBC during a daily call with reporters that Wednesday’s telephone conversation between Putin and Trump was “very important” and heaped praise on the new US administration for “doing everything it could so that peace can prevail”.

With the EU and Ukraine having every appearance of having been sidelined in the contacts between Trump and Putin about Ukraine, the EC spokesperson reiterated the EU message of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”.

“And we know that any just and lasting peace needs to include Ukraine at the table,” the EC spokesperson said

Both Ukraine and Europe belonged at the table, based on respect for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“No one wants peace more than Ukraine and its people. Ukraine has already endured unimaginable pain for almost three years and Ukraine has done the impossible.”

Any discussion and any peace deal needs to be sustainable “and a bad deal will only lead to more war, just as it did before,” the spokesperson said.

The briefing was told that the EU had not been in contact with Trump about the call before it took place: “There was no coordination regarding this call in particular”.

The EC has welcomed the February 13 statement by the Weimar+ group – a statement issued by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.

“We are ready to enhance our support for Ukraine. We commit to its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s war of aggression,” the statement said.

“We share the goal to keep supporting Ukraine until a just, comprehensive and lasting peace is reached. A peace that guarantees the interest of Ukraine and our own. We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies,” it said.

“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength,” the statement said, adding that Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.

“Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security.

“We recall that the security of the European continent is our common responsibility. We are therefore working together to strengthen our collective defence capabilities,” the Weimar+ statement said.

Marie Dumoulin, director of the European Council on Foreign Relation’s (ECFR) Wider Europe programme, said: “Trump’s statements after his phone calls with Putin and Zelensky haven’t really clarified how the US intends to pursue a negotiation to end the war. He announced that he gave instructions to several officials in his administration, not mentioning his special envoy General Keith Kellog, for the immediate launch of negotiations.

“But we still don’t know whether the US intends to talk separately to Russia and Ukraine or to bring them around one table, whether other important stakeholders, including Europe, will have a role; and what exactly is supposed to be discussed during these talks,” Dumoulin said.

By excluding the prospect of Nato membership for Ukraine and by shifting the burden of future European security on Europeans, US officials already have deprived themselves of important levers they could have used in a future negotiation, to push Russia into concessions, she said.

ECFR policy fellow Kirill Shamiev said: “Make no mistake, Trump’s and the Kremlin’s messaging about the talks and the potential peace deal looks like a huge relief and discursive victory for Russia.

“Trump ticked several boxes: he shifted the blame for the war to Biden; he emphasized the US-Russian victory in World War II; he even used Moscow’s point about the ‘common sense’ of not prolonging this war; and he talked to Putin before talking to Volodymyr Zelenskyy—mentioning that ‘we’ (Putin and Trump) will work on Ukraine. From the Russian point of view, this is already a great PR victory,” Shamiev said.

Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:

Become a Patron!