Kallas says Putin 'in weaker position than ever before' as EU pushes Ukraine accession by August and sanctions Russian child-deportation officials

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters after a Brussels meeting of EU foreign ministers that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "in a weaker position than he has been ever before," pointing to Moscow's "record" battlefield losses, Ukrainian deep strikes inside Russia, and growing domestic discontent that includes expanding internet restrictions and visible frustration among Russian commentators and influencers. Ukraine, she said, is now "in a much better position than a year ago" thanks to the EU's €90 billion loan, the deep strikes, and shifting battlefield dynamics.

Kallas pressed for Ukraine's EU accession to move on the same timetable. "There is now new momentum and we must use it to advance Ukraine's path into the EU," she said. "This means opening all negotiation clusters before summer. Getting Ukraine into the EU is not charity. It's an investment into our own security. And our message to Putin is clear: Ukraine's European future is more important to us than destruction of Ukraine is to Russia." Asked whether "summer" meant 1 June, as Kyiv reads it, Kallas said the ministers had had the same debate that morning and that "apparently, European summer is August, so let's see."

The ministers adopted new EU sanctions on 16 individuals and seven entities in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories over the "systematic unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children." The list includes Lilya Shvetsova, head of the "Red Carnation" camp in occupied Crimea, whom the EU said supervised activities "aimed at shaping the political and ideological views of children present at the facility, including Ukrainian children." Before the announcement, the EU and Canada co-hosted a meeting of the 47-country International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told the gathering: "War has really many faces, but stealing the children is really one of the most horrific. We should stop this, and Russia should pay."

After a change of government in Hungary cleared the previous block, the ministers also approved long-stalled sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, alongside new measures against leading Hamas figures. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who broke the news, said the EU was "sanctioning today the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders." Kallas added that "it was high time we move from deadlock to delivery. Extremisms and violence carry consequences." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned the move as adopted "in an arbitrary and political manner" and rejected what he called a "completely distorted moral equivalence" between Israeli citizens and Hamas.

Kallas offered early detail on the 21st sanctions package against Russia, which she said would "target the military industrial complex of Russia," with member states able to add proposals including measures against Russia's shadow fleet. She was dismissive of Putin's recent ceasefire suggestions, calling them "very cynical" calls "to protect his parade, whereas they were actually still attacking civilians in Ukraine," and said the EU was "not at the point where they would genuinely negotiate" while Moscow keeps presenting "maximalist claims." She also rejected former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a possible mediator, citing his work as "a high-level lobbyist for Russian state-owned companies": "If we give the right to Russia to appoint a negotiator on our behalf, that would not be very wise."

On the Middle East, Kallas said the current ceasefire with Iran is "under heavy strain" and that the EU is expanding sanctions to those obstructing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, while accelerating strategic-partnership work with the six Gulf states and "front-loading" security and defence cooperation in the strait. She warned that Hamas refusing to give up weapons "increases the odds for a new war," and said the ministers had agreed to resume the EU's cooperation agreement with Syria and to lift sanctions on Syria's interior and defence ministers.