UPDATED: No peace deal without involving Ukraine, Europe in talks, EU foreign policy chief says

There can be no Russia-Ukraine peace deal without the participation of Ukraine and Europe, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, after meeting with her South African counterpart Ronald Lamola before the two-day G20 foreign ministers meeting starts tomorrow in South Africa.

“We are in close contact with our US counterparts. So what they are saying is they are trying to find out whether Russia even wants peace, because so far they haven’t wanted peace,” Kallas told a press conference in Cape Town.

It’s clear for any kind of peace deal to work it has to have Ukraine and Europe on board, because otherwise it will just not function. Because the implementation is in Europe, is in Ukraine.

So, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, and nothing about Europe can be agreed without Europe participation.

No plans for emergency EU summit ‘at this point’

The European Council President António Costa has no plans to call an emergency EU summit to discuss the Ukraine war, according to EU sources.

An emergency summit of the EU’s 27 leaders had been rumoured, in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to host two meetings of EU leaders to discuss the war in response to Donald Trump’s talks with Russia.

Macron hosted crisis talks at the Élysee on Monday, which brought together the EU’s largest member states and the Nato secretary-general. He is also convening a video conference later on Wednesday with presidents and prime ministers of smaller countries, who were not invited to the first gathering.

An EU official said there were no plans “at this point” for a special European Council.

“Organising an extraordinary EUCO is not excluded either, but its purpose would be to produce results,” said the official, who added that Costa had begun consultations with EU leaders on two themes – EU support to Ukraine and security guarantees.

Sweden and Poland to sign agreement on civil defence

Meanwhile,Sweden and Poland on Wednesday had to sign an agreement that will see the two countries collaborate on civil defence in light of the worsening security situation across Europe.

The letter of intent, due to be signed by the Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak and Swedish defence minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin in Stockholm later today, is expected to cover protection of civilians, Baltic security and hybrid threat resilience.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, Mette Frederiksen’s government, looking to prove its preparedness in the face of criticism from the US which wants to gain control of Greenland, part of the Danish kingdom, is expected to present a new 50bn DKK defence agreement.

Photo: Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.