Top EU diplomat warns Trump that Europe can’t shoulder Ukraine war burden alone

UNITED NATIONS — Europe alone is not responsible for helping Ukraine bring an end to its war with Russia, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas warned Thursday.

That is particularly true when considering President Donald Trump’s pledge to halt the fighting, she said in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

“He was the one who promised to stop the killing,” Kallas said. “So it can’t be on us.”

Her comments come as Ukraine and its allies try to divine the meaning of Trump’s sudden about-face on the war between Kyiv and Moscow.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump wrote that he believed Ukraine “is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.” He added that this would come with the support of the European Union and NATO, which “can do what they want” with American weapons.

While many European officials welcomed the more supportive shift in tone toward Ukraine, some cautioned that Trump might be suggesting that he intends to pull back American involvement and absolve Washington of responsibility.

There is no NATO without the U.S., said Kallas, the high representative for foreign affairs of the European Commission.

“America is the greatest ally in NATO. So if you talk about what NATO should do, that also means what America should do,” she said.

Trump has recently piled pressure on NATO countries to completely stop importing Russian oil and gas, and he has made this cutoff a condition for Washington moving forward with its own tariffs or sanctions against Moscow.

“Trump has been right,” Kallas said. “We have decreased our oil and gas purchases by 80 percent, which means that if everybody did what we do, there could be a bigger effect. We have done 19 packages of sanctions. If allies would mirror them, the war would be over sooner.”

While underscoring that Europe had already reduced its use of Russian energy, Kallas argued that Washington had a role to play in convincing Hungary and Slovakia — the two biggest importers of Russian energy in the bloc — to sever their dependence. She stressed that the U.S. has “leverage” over those countries, pointing to a phone call between Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a positive step.

While senior members of Trump’s team, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff, have argued that sanctioning Russia could threaten its ability to negotiate, Moscow hasn’t approached those talks in “good faith,” Kallas said.

“I understand what the Americans are saying — that they can’t put pressure on Russia because that would close the communication channels that they have with Russia, and they are the only ones mediating this,” she said.

But the positive gestures from the U.S. have not yielded results, she stressed.

“You are coming in good faith, you are offering all this so that [Russia] would come to the table, but they actually just escalate. … This goodwill is abused by Putin,” she said. “Now the question is, what do you do with this?”

As leaders converged in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Europe was on edge following a slew of airspace violations by Russian drones and military planes. Denmark remains on high alert after a series of unattributed drone sightings over major airports.

Adding to the tension, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a G20 foreign ministers meeting at the U.N. headquarters Thursday that the EU and NATO had “basically declared war” on Moscow by supporting Russia, according to live translation of remarks delivered in Russian.

“Putin is testing us, seeing how far he can go. He wants to see our reaction,” Kallas said about the airspace violations. While NATO leaders wish to respond forcefully to deter future Russian incursions, Moscow is also trying to fuel anxiety in member countries.

“If your response is too strong, that also has an effect on our societies,” she said, adding that citizens are anxious about war spilling over into their territories. “So that’s the balancing act that the leaders have to do, not fueling the fear inside our society.”

Kallas also argued in favor of mobilizing frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine ahead of discussions among G7 finance ministers planned for Oct. 1.

“If the understanding is that nobody around the table can possibly imagine that reconstruction of Ukraine comes from our taxpayers’ pockets, then we need to have solutions. Russia should pay for the damages they have caused,” she said.

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