EU must decide what it wants from Putin before any talks: Kallas

The EU should set out the concessions it wants Russia to make for peace in Ukraine before talking with the Kremlin, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Tuesday.

A number of EU leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron are pushing to restart contacts with Russia's Vladimir Putin as the United States forges ahead with efforts to end the Ukraine war.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that a special envoy could be named for the negotiations.

Kaja Kallas said she intended to circulate a list of "ideas" in the coming days to the EU's 27 member states laying out the demands that should be placed on Moscow.

"Let's discuss what we want to talk about with the Russians before we talk about who is going to be the one who is talking to the Russians," the EU top diplomat told a group interview that included AFP.

"If they put out the maximalist demands, we should also put out the maximalist demands."

Kallas insisted that Europe needed to push for concessions from the Kremlin -- such as limiting its armed forces -- as Washington appeared more focused on getting Kyiv to compromise.

"In order to have a sustainable peace, everybody around the table, including the Russians and the Americans, need to understand that you need Europeans to agree," she said.

"For that, we also have conditions, and we should put the conditions, not on Ukrainians who have been already pressured a lot, but on the Russians."

Kallas insisted that Russia was "not winning" the war in Ukraine and that its casualty rates were "going up significantly".