Top European diplomat says Putin setting ‘a trap’ by demanding Ukraine concessions

Kyiv: The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Friday that the possibility of Ukraine ceding land to Russia as part of a peace deal to end their three-year war is “a trap” set by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian leader is demanding Ukrainian concessions in return for halting his army’s invasion but granting him those demands would amount to rewarding the country that started the fighting, Kaja Kallas said.

The recent talk about handing Putin concessions is “exactly the trap that Russia wants us to walk into,” Kallas said in an interview with the BBC.

“I mean, the discussion 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 and they are the ones who are the aggressor here, they are the ones who are brutally attacking another country and killing people,” she said. US-led peace efforts have struggled to get traction, despite US President Donald Trump discussing the war with Putin in Alaska last week before hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday. Numerous details for a formal peace proposal need to be hammered out. Meanwhile, Russia has continued to attack Ukraine and has raised objections to some key Ukrainian demands.

Establishing postwar Western security guarantees for Ukraine, is under discussion by a variety of countries.agencies