DISINFO: The EU diplomacy’s vision for peace in Ukraine illustrates its Russophobia
SUMMARY
The EU diplomacy’s vision for peace in Ukraine illustrates its Russophobia. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas expressed her consternation for the bilateral meeting between Russia and the US in Riyadh. She also called for military support for Ukraine and declared that Europe will not accept a negotiated agreement without its participation.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story distorts the statements of HRVP Kaja Kallas to portray the EU’s stance as warmongering and as wanting to continue the war in Ukraine while others want 'peace'. It also promotes a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that portrays any action criticising Russia’s illicit actions as “Russophobia”.
The allegations in this disinformation story are a manipulative interpretation of HRVP Kallas’s interview with Euractiv, in which she said that real pressure against “Russia's aggression really pays off”. One of her original statements was: “Of course, the Americans can meet with whomever they wish to, but for any peace deal regarding Ukraine to work, it has to involve the Europeans as well as the Ukrainians”.
The disinformation narrative is part of a wider disinformation campaign framing possible US-Russia negotiations as the only acceptable ‘peace initiative’ regardless of the maximalist character of Russia’s demands, while denying any agency to Ukraine or its other allies. Since 2024, and especially after Donald Trump’s electoral victory in November 2024, pro-Kremlin disinformation has tried to exploit discrepancies between the US and Europe regarding the war in Ukraine to portray the EU as the main obstacle for ‘peace’.
The EU is not against peace negotiations. However, EU officials have repeatedly stated that it is up to Ukraine only, as the victim of Russia’s aggression, to decide when peace talks with Russia may be possible and in which terms to end the war.
Pro-Kremlin disinformation has systematically instrumentalised the narrative that Russia wants peace in Ukraine in contrast to the West, but, as evidenced by Russia's actions in Ukraine, such statements are merely empty PR stunts deployed to garner support for Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Europe does not want peace in Ukraine soon, that Ukraine and Europe have lost in the Ukrainian conflict, that the US is starting negotiations because Russia prevailed over 50 countries in Ukraine, or that Ukraine may not resist until negotiations between Putin and Trump.