EU's new diplomat Scrutiny of Kallas's stance on conflict in Middle East

It was no surprise that Kaja Kallas went to Ukraine on her first day as the EU's chief diplomat.

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Kallas, who stepped down as Estonia's prime minister to take up the role, was accompanied in Kyiv yesterday by the new European Council president, Antonio Costa, and the European enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, marking the leadership changeover at the EU institutions on 1 December.

"In my first visit since taking up my office, my message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war," Kallas said.

The EU's high representative on foreign policy is not the most decisive actor in ending the war, but Kallas's words will still be welcomed in Kyiv - they are not just the vague promises of many EU leaders to stand by Ukraine "as long as it takes".

Kallas, a 47-year-old former MEP, has taken over from Josep Borrell, 77, a veteran Spanish politician who never seemed afraid to speak his mind. Asked about Donald Trump's return at an event at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics last week, Borrell did not offer the standard platitudes of "strong US leadership".

Instead he said: "How not, how I couldn't be worried? Certainly I am." Nor did he offer soothing bromides on whether Europe would fill the gap of a potential US withdrawal of support from Ukraine: "I don't think anyone knows the answer."