EU supports Ukraine after Trump again suggests it will have to cede territory to Russia: “They can’t give up”

According to the FT, the US president demanded that Zelensky accept the territorial concessions in the Donbas region that he claims. Vladimir Putin in exchange for ending the war and warned him that the Kremlin will “destroy” Ukraine if he does not, a narrative implicitly confirmed by most European leaders.

“Ukrainians are very resilient. They are fighting for their freedom, their independence and their country, so They can’t just give up“said the head of community diplomacy, Kaja Kallaafter the meeting of foreign ministers of the 27 held this Monday in Luxembourg.

“Everyone says that territorial integrity is an important value that must be defendedand I think we should keep them true to that. Because if we cede territories, that would send the message that you can use force against your neighbors and get whatever you want. “That would be very dangerous,” says Kallas.

For the High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, The international community cannot legalize the Donbas territories occupied by Russia either..

“I come from a country that was occupied for 50 years, but most countries in the world did not recognize those territories as Russian, and that also meant a lot,” highlighted the former Prime Minister of Estonia.

Kallas still believes that “President Trump is sincere in his attempt to end this war,” but has also stressed that “nothing can come from these meetings if Ukraine or Europe are not part of them“.

After meeting Trump at the White House on Friday, Zelensky held an urgent conference call with several European leaders (from which, as usual, he was excluded Pedro Sanchez) to explain what happened and get their support.

“None of us should pressure Zelensky on territorial concessions. We should all put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression. Appeasement was never the path to a just and lasting peace,” one of the participants wrote after the meeting, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In Luxembourg, the head of European diplomacy has once again demanded that governments intensify their financial and military support to Ukraine. Kallas hopes that this week the nineteenth package of sanctions against Moscow will be approved and that progress will be made on the 140 billion loan to kyiv with frozen Russian funds.

For his part, the Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albareshas met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybihaand has announced that Spain plans to send 70 generators to face the winter in the face of Russian attacks on the country’s electrical infrastructure.

Several ministers have expressed their discomfort or have openly criticized that Budapest is going to be the venue for the new meeting that Trump wants to hold with Putin in the coming weeks.

“As for Budapest, it is not nice to see that a person with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court is going to come to a European country,” Kallas herself has complained.

“Putin’s only place in Europe is in The Haguein front of the International Criminal Court. And not in any of our capitals,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys.