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The EU is preparing a “plan B” on how to hold economic sanctions against Russia if the Trump administration abandons the peace talks in Ukraine and demanding approach to Moscow, according to the Block’s high diplomat.
US President Donald Trump had pledged to bring a quick end to Russia’s more than three -year war against Ukraine, but has failed to force a peace agreement during his first 100 days in office as Moscow and both reject the elements of his administration’s proposals.
“It is a question whether Americans will want to leave,” Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for foreign and security politics, told the Financial Times. “We see signs that they are thinking if they should leave Ukraine and not try to get a deal with the Russians because it’s hard.”
A spokesman for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday: “If there is no progress, we will return as a mediator in the process.”
Trump’s suggestions for economic approach to Moscow as part of a peace deal have prompted concerns that some EU countries will also demand that Brussels also move to remove EU sanctions against Russia in the coming months.
European officials are also concerned about the consequences of the US potentially by allowing its companies to re-emphasize economic cooperation with Russia while the EU business is not yet forbidden to do so.
Kalas said there was a “plan B” to maintain economic pressure on Russia, Hungary should block the EU’s economic sanctions in July, but stressed that Brussels was still focused on maintaining all related member states.
“There is also a plan B, but we have to work for plan A; Because otherwise you focus on plan B and then that will happen, “she said, adding that the talks were continuing with Washington and other international partners to ensure that the Western sanction regime was held in the country.
FT has previously reported that one option is for national governments to adopt sanctions individually to bypass a Hungarian veto, such as Belgium issuing a royal decree to keep the assets of the Russian state worth € 190 billion frozen in Belgian land.
“Belgium will not do something national,” a senior Belgian official told FT.
But Kallas admitted that there are discussions in some EU capitals if they will follow the Trump administration if it leaves Ukraine and restores relations with Russia.
“It is clear that these kinds of discussions are happening in certain member states and perhaps hopes that we really should not support them (Ukraine),” said Kalas, a former Estonian Prime Minister. “But it is also a false hope, because if you look at Russia that is investing more than 9 percent of its GDP in the military, they will love to use it again.”
As part of its peace proposals, the US has offered to lift sanctions against Moscow-established in relation to the EU and resume economic cooperation with Russia in the sector including energy. Hungary has threatened to veto a necessary unanimous vote in late July to extend the EU sanctions regime.
Kalas said Europe could open financially to help Ukraine in the event of the US withdrawal, but admitted that “in terms of military support, it is certainly more difficult to fill the gap if Americans are leaving.”
She said that Brussels and other European capitals were focused on “still working with Americans and trying to convince them why the outcome of this war is also in their interest that Russia does not really take everything it wants.”
But Kallas said that no EU country would accept the recognition of Crimea like Russia, an element of the US proposal that is a major red line for Kyiv.
“I can’t see we’re accepting these kinds of things. But we can’t talk about America, of course, and what they will do,” she said. “On the European side, we have said this over and over … Crimea is Ukraine.”
“There are tools in the hands of Americans that they can use to put pressure on Russia to really stop this war,” Kallas added. “President Trump has said he wants the murder to be stopped. He must put pressure on the one who is doing the murder.”
