EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has admitted that the bloc has nothing to “offer to Russia” and therefore doesn’t expect any direct talks with Moscow. Brussels will choose “more pressure” over negotiations, she said.

Asked on Friday whether she intends to reopen diplomatic channels with Russia, as Italy and France have suggested, Kallas shot down the idea of re-engagement.

”We can’t… go to Russia and say ‘talk to us,’” she replied. “The concessions that the Americans are putting on Ukraine are quite strong, so I don’t think there’s anything we can offer to Russia on top of that. Why should they talk to us?”

Kallas previously described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “terrorist” who Europe “shouldn’t be negotiating with,” and has written off every version of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine as overly conciliatory to Russia.

With the US now mediating talks between Moscow and Kiev, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have both called on the EU to appoint a special envoy to the Kremlin, to ensure that the bloc doesn’t get sidelined while a potential peace agreement is drafted.

Like Kallas, Russia does not foresee any meaningful talks with Brussels in the near future. “If anyone wishes to talk, we will never refuse dialogue, even though we fully realize… that reaching an agreement with the current generation of European leaders will most likely be impossible,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters last week.

“They have entrenched themselves too deeply in a posture of hatred towards Russia,” he added.

“How can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas?” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday. Brussels, Peskov said, is full of “semi-literate, incompetent functionaries.”

In a speech at the European Defense Agency’s annual conference on Wednesday, Kallas said one of her key priorities is “to support Ukraine with 60 billion euro in military aid for 2026 and 2027.” Her fixation on Russia has caused discontent within the EU, with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accusing her of banning all Russian energy imports “solely out of hatred.” Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have both announced plans to sue the EU over the Russian energy embargo.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz should “step forward” and re-engage in dialogue with Russia, opposition lawmaker Tino Chrupalla has said, warning that Germany is sliding toward “deindustrialization” and urgently needs action.

The remarks came a day after Merz outright refused to engage in direct talks with Moscow, maintaining that Berlin would not be an intermediary in the Ukraine peace process. Moscow and Kiev should talk to each other directly, he told journalists following the government coalition meeting on Wednesday. “We are not a mediator here,” Merz said.

Addressing parliament on Thursday, Chrupalla, who leads the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction in the Bundestag, said Germany needs action rather than “constant commentary… on the international crises.” The country is facing “deindustrialization,” he warned, adding that the German economy was “losing 1,000 jobs per day” last year.

“As the head of the German government, take a step forward and finally call Moscow and negotiate peace and prosperity for the European continent,” Chrupalla said, adding that it was high time Merz stopped “clumsily hiding behind ornamental plants.”

Germany’s economy, which had relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas, took a heavy blow after the country joined Western sanctions against Moscow following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

High energy prices – a result of the government’s decision to ditch cost-effective Russian oil and gas imports – have repeatedly been cited by German media and officials as a key factor behind the economic slowdown. In mid-January, the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry linked it to what it called an alarmingly high number of bankruptcies.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it is ready to resume dialogue with European nations at any time. In December, Yury Ushakov, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said that any European leaders were “welcome to come to Moscow,” adding that it is the Europeans themselves, who refuse all contact.

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Russia condemns the renewed US attempts to economically strangle Cuba, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Her comments come after US President Donald Trump moved to ramp up pressure on the island’s fuel lifeline.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order invoking a national emergency to lay the groundwork for tariffs on goods from countries that sell oil to Cuba. The move is meant to strengthen an embargo against Havana, which dates back to the 1960s. It also comes after Washington kidnapped in Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, which served as Cuba’s primary source of oil.

In a statement on Saturday, Zakharova said that the crackdown amounts to illegitimate coercion of a sovereign state outside the UN framework. “What we see is yet another radical recurrence of Washington’s strategy of maximum pressure on the Island of Freedom, aimed at its economic suffocation,” Zakharova said.

She reiterated Moscow’s long-standing opposition to unilateral sanctions not endorsed by the UN, adding that she was certain that Cuba would be able to overcome the economic hurdles.

In response to Trump, Havana declared an “international emergency.” It said that Trump’s pressure campaign was an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” adding that it has its origins in “the US anti-Cuban neo-fascist right wing.”

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that US tariffs on countries exporting oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis, adding that the country “will always look for diplomatic channels to seek solidarity” with the island.

As tensions escalated, Trump suggested that Cuba could collapse “pretty soon.” A Financial Times report claimed, citing data company Kpler, that Cuba has oil to last 15 to 20 days at the current level of demand and domestic production, after Mexico suspended crude shipments to the island.

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