Moscow and Washington have declared they will not engage in dialogue with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov made the remarks following the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine’s first round of three-way negotiations in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. European Union officials have complained that, despite providing military and financial aid to Kiev, the bloc has been largely excluded from the talks.
In an interview aired on Sunday, Peskov described the current EU leadership as “incompetent,” adding that its actions “undermine the system of international relations.”
“How can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas? Neither we will ever discuss anything with her, nor will the Americans, and this is obvious. We can only wait until she leaves,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesperson further argued that Brussels was packed with “semi-literate, incompetent functionaries who are unable to look into the future or understand the realities of today.”
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, has repeatedly called for tougher sanctions on Russia and increased military support for Ukraine. Last year, she dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s roadmap for peace between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that territorial concessions to Moscow would be “a trap that Putin wants us to walk into.”
More recently, Kallas criticized Trump’s plans to annex Greenland, stating that transatlantic relations had “taken a big blow” as a result.
The EU leadership’s hardline approach toward Russia has been criticized by some member states, including Hungary and Slovakia. Last week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico compared the EU to a “massage parlor” and called on Kallas to step down.