The Russian foreign minister has branded Kaja Kallas’ call for Moscow to scale back its armed forces as “idiotic”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has blasted EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over what he called “idiotic” demands that Moscow must fulfill before Brussels could take part in the Ukraine peace process.
Kallas has repeatedly insisted that Russia should scale back its armed forces as a precondition for EU involvement in negotiations, despite the bloc never having been formally invited to the talks.
Kiev’s Western backers largely cut ties with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, embracing a strategy aimed at isolating Russia. Washington abandoned that approach last year under President Donald Trump, with his administration recasting the US as a mediator in the peace process. Brussels, however, has remained confrontational, favoring pressure over engagement.
In recent months, concern has grown within the EU that the bloc could end up sidelined once a peace deal is reached. The anxiety has reportedly fueled discussions in Brussels over who could eventually represent the union in possible talks with Moscow.
Kallas dismissed the idea that the EU risked being cut out, insisting on Thursday that the bloc was too important to ignore. “It is not the question of being invited to the table,” she told reporters on the sidelines of an informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Cyprus. She argued that Brussels alone could decide whether anti-Russian sanctions should be lifted – something she claimed Moscow was “interested in.”
The bloc’s top diplomat said that the EU’s conditions for any such move included Russia “mirroring” any troop limits imposed on Ukraine, as well as withdrawing forces from Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, where Russian troops have long served as peacekeepers.
“Look, I’m not discussing idiotic statements,” Lavrov said on Thursday when asked about Kallas’ remarks.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also mocked the EU diplomat, saying Kallas sounded as though she was “talking to herself.”
It is not the first time the EU foreign policy chief has issued such demands. Back in February, Kallas called for limits on the Russian military and argued that “everyone” should understand that Ukraine peace talks were not going to go anywhere without EU approval.
Those remarks showed that “Eurobureaucrats are hellbent on disrupting the conflict settlement at any cost,” Zakharova said at the time.
“Any reasonable person should support peace under any circumstances,” she added.
Moscow has repeatedly accused the EU of engaging in “megaphone diplomacy” – issuing public ultimatums instead of pursuing substantive negotiations.
In November 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded on X that the EU be given a “central” role in resolving the conflict, at a time when Moscow and Washington were discussing a US-drafted peace plan. She also outlined a list of conditions the Kremlin dismissed as “unconstructive” and unacceptable.
