Morning opening: Don’t walk into a Russian ‘trap’ on talks, EU’s chief diplomat warns
Jakub Krupa
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has warned against walking into a Russian “trap” by focusing on personalities rather than issues in potential talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Her comments came as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered in Cyprus for informal talks to discuss what would their main asks of Russia be in any peace negotiations.
In recent days, several EU leaders opined on who could lead any potential talks with Russia, with a number of names – including that of Kallas – being floated as an option. Finland’s president Alexander Stubb was also one of the early favourites.
But speaking early morning before the talks started, Kallas conceded there is “not much happening” in the talks right now, as she cautioned against focusing on personalities:
“It’s a trap that Russia wants us to walk into, that we discuss who talks to them, and they are already picking who is suitable, who is not. Let’s not walk into that trap.
Negotiations are always a team effort. You have good cops, you have bad cops, you have a strategy [on] how you go to the table, so that is why the substance is much more important.”
Kallas insisted the EU will have to be represented in any future talks anyway, as “if you think about what Russia is interested in, lifting the sanctions, for example, it’s a European decision.”
The former Estonian prime minister also strongly criticised Russia’s repeated warnings about potential further strikes on Kyiv.
“This is what Russia does. Because it’s not really gaining ground on the battlefield, what they are doing now is really increasing the terrorist attacks, because you can’t really describe it in other ways, creating fear inside the society.
It hasn’t worked for four years, and I don’t think that it’s going to work now.”
We will hear from other ministers throughout the day, before a press conference summing up the talks in the early afternoon.
Separately, Hungary’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, is in Brussels today.
But curiously, he begins the visit with bilateral talks with Belgium’s prime minister, Bart de Wever, and Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, and not the much-awaited talks on accessing the frozen EU funds. That’s only to come tomorrow afternoon, which could be a sign that the negotiations on how to best resolve the lengthy problem with Orbán-era reforms are still ongoing.
Romania’s Rumen Radev is also in Brussels, and also talking about the EU funds and how to rescue some of them that have not yet been spent before their expiry date in August.
Elsewhere, I will keep an eye on the latest reports from this unusual May heatwave as it still continues in large parts of western Europe.
Lots for us to get on with.
It’s Thursday, 28 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in Sweden for rumoured talks on air defence, fighter jets
Elsewhere, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson in Sweden today, where an announcement on air defence is expected, Sweden’s government said, as reported by AFP.
Aftonbladet newspaper reported that Sweden would announce the donation of JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets of the older C and D models to Ukraine and launch negotiations for the sale of the more recent E model to Kyiv.
The two countries signed a letter of intent in October 2025 on Kyiv’s purchase of 100 to 150 Gripen E aircraft.
Zelenskyy and Kristersson will appear together at a press conference later today – I will keep an eye on this.
‘We need to find someone who does not need Nobel Peace Prize,’ ministers joke about Russia negotiator
But other foreign ministers appear somewhat divided on the concept of appointing a single EU negotiator for Russia.
Austria’s Beate Meinl-Reisinge said it was a necessary step as “the EU should not get ready.”
Meinl-Reisinge said she would be “pressing for the European Union to position itself, to be able to negotiate beyond its own interests, and to appoint a chief negotiator.”
Luxembourg’s Xavier Bettel said “there are so many good people” to take the job, and “what would be important is that it’s not just … someone who is a neighbour of Russia,” but should be a bit more removed from the conflict.
“Maybe a triad of three people – head of states, minister of foreign affairs, former prime ministers? Maybe ex-politicians are less scared about the results? We need to find someone who does not need a Nobel Peace Prize,” he joked.
But eastern flank leaders – Lithuania’s Kestutis Budrys and Estonia’s Margus Tsahkna – sided with Kallas instead.
“This is not a time when we are discussing who is going to have the negotiations,” Budrys said. “We have to discuss what we are doing to put additional pressure on Russia.”
Tsakhna, meanwhile, even repeated Kallas’s language, calling the entire discussion a “trap.”
But he picked up Bettel’s link to the Nobel Peace Prize, saying:
“Whoever would like to go right now – this guy is not going to have a Nobel Prize, because there won’t be any serious talks.”
Morning opening: Don’t walk into a Russian ‘trap’ on talks, EU’s chief diplomat warns
Jakub Krupa
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has warned against walking into a Russian “trap” by focusing on personalities rather than issues in potential talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Her comments came as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered in Cyprus for informal talks to discuss what would their main asks of Russia be in any peace negotiations.
In recent days, several EU leaders opined on who could lead any potential talks with Russia, with a number of names – including that of Kallas – being floated as an option. Finland’s president Alexander Stubb was also one of the early favourites.
But speaking early morning before the talks started, Kallas conceded there is “not much happening” in the talks right now, as she cautioned against focusing on personalities:
“It’s a trap that Russia wants us to walk into, that we discuss who talks to them, and they are already picking who is suitable, who is not. Let’s not walk into that trap.
Negotiations are always a team effort. You have good cops, you have bad cops, you have a strategy [on] how you go to the table, so that is why the substance is much more important.”
Kallas insisted the EU will have to be represented in any future talks anyway, as “if you think about what Russia is interested in, lifting the sanctions, for example, it’s a European decision.”
The former Estonian prime minister also strongly criticised Russia’s repeated warnings about potential further strikes on Kyiv.
“This is what Russia does. Because it’s not really gaining ground on the battlefield, what they are doing now is really increasing the terrorist attacks, because you can’t really describe it in other ways, creating fear inside the society.
It hasn’t worked for four years, and I don’t think that it’s going to work now.”
We will hear from other ministers throughout the day, before a press conference summing up the talks in the early afternoon.
Separately, Hungary’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, is in Brussels today.
But curiously, he begins the visit with bilateral talks with Belgium’s prime minister, Bart de Wever, and Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, and not the much-awaited talks on accessing the frozen EU funds. That’s only to come tomorrow afternoon, which could be a sign that the negotiations on how to best resolve the lengthy problem with Orbán-era reforms are still ongoing.
Romania’s Rumen Radev is also in Brussels, and also talking about the EU funds and how to rescue some of them that have not yet been spent before their expiry date in August.
Elsewhere, I will keep an eye on the latest reports from this unusual May heatwave as it still continues in large parts of western Europe.
Lots for us to get on with.
It’s Thursday, 28 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.