Kremlin says EU is on a 'provocative course' and 'sawing off the branch' with Russian energy pledge; Kallas says Moscow 'not interested in peace'

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas traded sharp remarks on Thursday 29 October.

What the Kremlin said

Peskov said the European Union was not taking part in planned trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States. “We are not aware of the European Union taking any kind of peacemaking stance,” he said. “The European Union is pursuing a provocative course aimed at further escalation and prolonging the war,” TASS reported.

Speaking to the Izvestia newspaper, Peskov said European countries were being short-sighted by pledging never again to buy Russian energy. “The word ‘never’ has no place in relations between states,” he said, adding that by phasing out Russian energy, “they are sawing off the branch they are sitting on”, according to TASS. He also said Europe’s economy was “stagnating”.

What the EU said

Kallas wrote on X that a Russian attack on the railway station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday was “another brutal attack on Ukrainian civilians” and “clearly shows that Moscow is not interested in peace”, ANSA reported. She said she would urge partners at the EU-Canada summit in Montreal and the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta to strengthen support for Ukraine and to pursue accountability through the Special Tribunal and a claims commission. “Russia must be held accountable,” she wrote.

Neither side had responded directly to the other’s remarks in the reports.

See also: Zakharova on the EU negotiator idea and the EU’s Arctic strategy.