PARIS — The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday she saw little sign of Russian goodwill to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, telling Reuters in an interview in Paris that Moscow had already signed up to numerous agreements underpinning European security but had failed to respect them. She was speaking on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Paris, a day ahead of trilateral discussions on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

Source: Reuters (John Irish), Nov 9 2026, via 94.1 The Duke

Nov 10-11the dates of the US-mediated trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and the United States — Reuters
1994the year of the Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia and others pledged to respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and existing borders — cited by Kallas
22ndthe EU sanctions package on Russia now under negotiation in Brussels
5the other parties Reuters said will also be in Abu Dhabi: officials from France, Britain, Germany, NATO and the European Commission

"So far they have just been pretending that they negotiate because we haven't seen any goodwill from the Russian side," Kallas told Reuters. "They are bombing Kyiv, they are bombing civilians. Ukrainians are making advances on the battlefield, so the Russian focus has been only on civilians to cause as much suffering before the hard winter is coming." Those are the EU foreign policy chief's characterisations of Russian conduct; Russia denies targeting civilians.

Source: Reuters (John Irish), Nov 9 2026, via 94.1 The Duke

Reuters noted the background against which Kallas spoke: Russia denies targeting civilians but has stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other key targets in recent months, as its forces' advances in eastern Ukraine have stalled, and Ukraine has responded with drone attacks on Russian energy installations, often deep inside Russian territory. Moscow has long accused the Europeans of refusing to take Russia's own security concerns into consideration, for example by pursuing NATO enlargement up to its borders.

Source: Reuters (John Irish), Nov 9 2026, via 94.1 The Duke

"We already have a European security architecture"

US negotiator Jared Kushner said last week that the United States was working on a "broader European security architecture", a project that has worried some Europeans, who have repeatedly said they would not accept anything they had not agreed to. Kallas answered that point directly: "The problem is that we already have a European security architecture in place that Russia has agreed to," she said, citing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum among the examples. "All this talk has to be about how we make sure that Russia actually respects the obligations that it has taken," she added.

Source: Reuters (John Irish), Nov 9 2026, via 94.1 The Duke

Kallas said future discussions on European security should be led by the European Union in line with its treaties and institutional structures, rather than through ad hoc formats. "It is clear that the big countries want to talk also to big countries," she said. "But when it comes to European security issues, then the European Union has very clear lines in place. We have the treaties." In a sign of friction among Europeans, Reuters recalled, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned on November 5 that Europe risked becoming irrelevant in efforts to end the war if member states kept pursuing separate diplomatic tracks instead of agreeing on a common representative and strategy.

Source: Reuters (John Irish), Nov 9 2026, via 94.1 The Duke

Sanctions, the midterms, and what the G7 diplomats are watching

With the EU currently negotiating a 22nd package of sanctions on Russia, Kallas said she hoped the losses suffered by President Donald Trump's Republicans in last week's US midterm elections would alter Washington's approach to Ukraine. "We are hoping that there will be pressure on Russia to end this war and pressure (with) the (US) sanctions," she said. "If we were to do this together with the Americans, it would really have an effect." A separate Reuters report from the same Paris meeting said G7 diplomats were aiming to gauge whether the midterm defeat changes the administration's approach, painted a sombre picture of the situation in Ukraine, and identified shortages of Patriot interceptor missiles and other air-defence systems as Kyiv's most urgent military vulnerability.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026 (G7 allies assess Trump's midterm setback at Paris talks), via DevDiscourse

What is solid

  • Kallas told Reuters in Paris on Monday that she saw little sign of Russian goodwill to negotiate, that Russia was 'pretending' to negotiate, and that talks should focus on making Russia respect obligations it has already taken, including the 1994 Budapest Memorandum — Reuters interview, carried by multiple Reuters syndication outlets
  • Trilateral Ukraine-Russia-US talks are scheduled in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10-11, with officials from France, Britain, Germany, NATO and the European Commission also in the Emirati capital — Reuters
  • The EU is negotiating a 22nd sanctions package on Russia — Reuters

What is only claimed

  • Kallas's characterisation of Russian bombing as aimed 'only' at civilians to cause suffering: this is the EU chief's stated assessment — Russia denies targeting civilians, and Reuters attributes the stepped-up attacks to energy infrastructure and other key targets
  • Whether the US midterm results will change Washington's Ukraine approach: Kallas said she hoped they would; G7 diplomats told Reuters the Democrats' gains could narrow the White House's room for manoeuvre but warned against expecting a return to traditional US multilateralism

What happens next

The test comes within 24 hours. The Abu Dhabi talks open on Tuesday, November 10, and run to Wednesday, with security guarantees, territory and de-escalation on the table. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the meeting is a matter of trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine with the United States as mediator, according to reports of his briefing — a framing that leaves Europe's own seat contested, exactly the argument Kallas was making in Paris. Whether any Abu Dhabi outcome is written with the Europeans inside the room, and whether the EU's 22nd sanctions package and US sanctions move together as Kallas urged, are the two developments to watch this week.

Source: Silent Dossier, Nov 9 2026 (who sits at the Abu Dhabi talks — Peskov, Kallas, Barrot)

The Paris meeting at which Kallas spoke opened on Monday with Europe pressing Washington on both Ukraine and Iran. Read: G7 Paris opens — Europe presses Rubio on Ukraine and Iran