EU fears US-Russia meeting will pile pressure on Kyiv

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she fears talks between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, with the two men set to meet today.

- Jennifer Rankin Brussels Pjotr Sauer

Witkoff, the property developer turned envoy recently exposed for coaching Russian officials on how to win Trump's favour, is arriving in Moscow after leading a US delegation in talks with Ukraine at the weekend, nearly four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

"I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the victim, which is that Ukraine has to make concessions and obligations," Kallas said of the Witkoff-Putin meeting. "Whereas in order to have peace, we shouldn't lose focus that it's actually Russia who has started this war and Russia that is continuing this war and Russia that is really targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure, every single day to cause as much damage as possible."

European leaders have been alarmed by a US plan, heavily tilted in Russia's favour, that emerged last month to end the war. It included granting Moscow territories in eastern Ukraine it did not yet control, while forcing Kyiv to cap the size of its army and abandon its ambition to join Nato. While the plan has since been changed, Ukraine's European allies remain concerned about any plan that could enshrine the forced change of borders and fail to punish war crimes.