MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’ statement that the conflict in Ukraine cannot be settled without the European Union’s participation looks more like a desperate plea than diplomacy, a senior Russian lawmaker said.
"Brussels is afraid of being sidelined in the Ukrainian settlement. The statement by European diplomacy chief Kallas that it is impossible to strike a deal without the EU sounds like a desperate plea: ‘This war is in Europe, it involves Ukraine and concerns Europe and Europe’s participation is needed for a true peace," Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, or LDPR, wrote on his Telegram channel.
However, in his words, Europe’s participation has only protracted hostilities in Ukraine. As far back as 2014, Russia "called on the Old World to revise its anti-Russian course that was imposed on it from across the ocean," he recalled.
"With the Borrells and von der Leyens of the world in charge, billions of euros were thrown into the furnace of war under the pretense of dealing a strategic defeat to Russia. Having failed to reach their goals on the battlefield, now the Kallases are talking about ‘security,’" Slutsky noted.
He stressed that the only real way to restore stability in Europe is the Russian president’s initiative to create a new architecture of Eurasian security and the recognition of territorial realities.