UK opposes French, German and Italian push to restart talks with Kremlin

KievIndependent reports that the “UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper on Jan. 15 dismissed proposals from France and Italy to engage the Kremlin diplomatically to help end the war in Ukraine”. In addition thereto, German Chancellor Merz also called for talks with Russia, as “Russia is Germany’s biggest neighbor “.

European leaders have seen that Donald Trump engaged in diplomatic talks with Russia. For a year, these talks have been torpedoed by the Europeans and no peace has been agreed over Ukraine due to the fierce opposition of European countries. The US and Russia have started a kind of detente, but the trust is not built due to the European difficulties.

The UK is driving a hard line and has been luckily absent from participating in the huge support packages for Kiev. The EU is financing the EUR 90 billion package without the UK. The hard line drive of the UK is rather a free ride on Europe’s expense.

But will Russia trust the new diplomatic approach of the Europeans? Too much blood was shed and too many promises broken. Even the new turn in the investigation about Nord Stream, the new revealed fact that a “foreign government” was behind the attack on the pipelines may not lead to a better climate in Europe. It needs hard and convincing agreements and facts that cannot be reversed to make peace. It would be better to achieve this with talks and not with a bloody war.