EU defence commissioner welcomes Putin’s call to “eliminate the root causes of war” with irony

EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius responded ironically to Vladimir Putin’s repeated call to “eliminate the root causes” of the Russia-Ukraine war. Kubilius said he agreed, provided the phrase referred to what he described as the real causes: the Kremlin’s imperial ambitions.

“The ‘root causes of the war’ are Putin himself, his decisions to occupy Crimea in 2014 and full-scale invasion in 2022. This is the first time when I agree with Putin: the real ‘root causes’ of the war should be removed!” Kubilius wrote on X, according to European Pravda.

His comments followed a meeting in Moscow between Putin and US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The envoys met in Moscow on Sept. 5 and traveled by train to Kyiv the following day. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced at about 2:20 p.m. that talks with Witkoff and Kushner had begun.

Before the negotiations, the delegation was shown the interior of Saint Sophia Cathedral. Representatives of France, the United Kingdom and Germany also arrived in Kyiv alongside the US envoys to take part in the talks.

“

The ‘root causes of the war’ are Putin himself, his decisions to occupy Crimea in 2014 and full-scale invasion in 2022. This is the first time when I agree with Putin: the real ‘root causes’ of the war should be removed!