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EU’s Kallas criticises Putin’s ‘very cynical’ Ukraine ceasefire calls and rejects suggestion of Schröder as mediator – Europe live

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier was also dismissive of Putin’s “very cynical” calls for a ceasefire “to protect his parade, whereas they were actually still attacking civilians in Ukraine .” And the former Estonian prime minister, too, was not particularly keen on Schröder as a mediator on Ukraine. “If we give the right to Russia to appoint a negotiator on our behalf, that would not be very wise. And second, I think Gerhard Schröder has been the high-level lobbyist for Russian state-owned companies, so it’s clear why Putin wants him to be the person so that actually he would be sitting on both sides of the table.” Kallas also warned against broader Russian operations in Europe, warning that “clearly, our adversaries are not sleeping; so clearly, they want to increase the influence in Europe.” “We unfortunately already see this in sports organisations, where, you know, Russians are let to compete like nothing has happened. And there are discussions there. We also saw this Venice Biennale where they are there like nothing has happened. So clearly they are working all the time and we have to be vigilant as well.”