(13 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 13 February 2025
1. Mid of the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, arriving to brief media
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaja Kallas, European Union foreign policy chief:
"(US) President (Donald) Trump says that the killing should stop. (Russian President, Vladimir) Putin can stop the killing by stopping bombing Ukraine. This is doable if there is a will. It is clear that any deal behind our backs will not work. Any agreement will need also Ukraine and Europe being part of it and this is clear that appeasement also always, always fails. So Ukraine will continue to resist and Europe will continue to back Ukraine. That is very clear."
3. Close of camera
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaja Kallas, European Union foreign policy chief:
"Any agreement without us will fail because you need Europe and Ukraine to also implement the agreement. So without us at the table, you know, you can agree on whatever but it will just simply fail because the implementation is not there. Any quick fix is a dirty deal that we have seen before when it comes to Minsk, for example, and it will just simply not work. It will not stop the killing, it will not stop the war, and it will just continue."
5. Close of camera
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaja Kallas, European Union’s foreign policy chief:
"Again, I would say that, you know, we shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started because it plays to Russia’s court and it is what they want. Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked."
7. Close of camera
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaja Kallas, European Union’s foreign policy chief:
"If there is agreement made behind our backs it will simply not work because you need for any kind of deal, any kind of agreement, you need Europeans to implement this deal. You need the Ukrainians to implement this deal. So I mean, that doesn’t also look good if somebody agrees something and everybody says that ‘okay, fine, you have agreed, but we will not follow this’. Ukrainians will resist and we will support them."
9. Close of camera
10. Kallas leaving
STORYLINE:
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned on Thursday that the bloc must be part of Ukraine peace talks or the deal will "fail".
"If there is agreement made behind our backs it will simply not work because you need for any kind of deal, any kind of agreement, you need Europeans to implement this deal," Kallas said as she attended a NATO defence ministers meeting on Ukraine in Brussels.
Her comments came as several NATO allies stressed on Thursday that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations as U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the United States is betraying the war-ravaged country.
European governments are reeling after the Trump administration signalled that it is planning face-to-face talks with Russia on ending the Ukraine war without involving them, insisted that Kyiv should not join NATO, and said that it’s up to Europe to protect itself and Ukraine from whatever Russia might do next.
Hegseth denied that the U.S. has betrayed Ukraine by launching negotiations about its future without Kyiv’s full involvement.
After talks with Putin and then Zelenskyy, Trump said on Wednesday he would “probably” meet in person with the Russian leader in the near term, possibly in Saudi Arabia.
Lecornu warned that the future of NATO itself is now in question.
AP video shot by Mark Carlson
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