Ukraine must deal with Russia from a position of strength to avoid a “bad peace” because it is “much more dangerous” to show Vladimir Putin’s weakness than to make concessions to him, the Estonian prime minister said.
Kaya Kallas issued the warning after Henry Kissinger, a former US secretary of state, said Ukraine must give up territory to secure a peace agreement, and after divisions between EU member states over how firmly to behave towards Moscow.
“We must avoid a bad peace, a badly agreed peace for Ukraine would mean a bad peace for all of us,” Ms Kallas said in a speech in Stockholm, Sweden.
“It is much more dangerous to give in to Putin than to provoke him. All these seemingly small concessions of the aggressor lead to big wars. We have made this mistake three times already: Georgia, Crimea and Donbass.”
Ms. Kallas was referring to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Parts of Donbass are controlled by Russian separatists and fighting is now fierce in the eastern region.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, was a hawk at the Davos forum on Tuesday. She said: “Ukraine must win this war, and Putin’s aggression must be a strategic failure.”
But there was new evidence of divisions over Ukraine between EU member states struggling to agree on an oil embargo against Moscow.
Italy and Hungary have called on the EU to explicitly call for a ceasefire and peace talks at next week’s European Council summit. The position puts them at odds with other Member States determined to stick to a hard line, such as Poland and the Baltic States.
At a meeting of EU envoys on Friday, the Italian ambassador proposed changes to the draft conclusions of the summit to call for an immediate ceasefire. This was supported by Hungary and Cyprus, which blocked new EU sanctions against Moscow.
The conclusions currently state that the EU is “unwavering in its commitment to helping Ukraine exercise its inherent right to self-defense against Russian aggression” and does not refer to the peace talks.
Mr Macron, who says Kyiv will negotiate on its own terms, and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, have called for a ceasefire.
Earlier this month, Vladimir Zelensky said the French president had asked him to make concessions to prevent Russia’s humiliation from failing the invasion. He said Kyiv would never cede territory to Moscow to help Putin keep his face.
The United Kingdom insists that “Putin must fail” and that Ukraine must not be sold into any peace talks.
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