{"id":79184,"date":"2026-09-26T05:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/26\/she-grew-up-under-soviet-rule-now-eus-top-diplomat-warns-europe-against-giving-russia-what-it-wants\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:55:22","slug":"she-grew-up-under-soviet-rule-now-eus-top-diplomat-warns-europe-against-giving-russia-what-it-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/26\/she-grew-up-under-soviet-rule-now-eus-top-diplomat-warns-europe-against-giving-russia-what-it-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"She grew up under Soviet rule. Now EU’s top diplomat warns Europe against giving Russia what it wants"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Russia<\/a> is trying to scare Europe into backing off its defense in the region, claims European Union\u2019s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who warns it will only lead to Moscow becoming more aggressive if it succeeds.<\/p>\n

“Their goal is to intimidate us from not supporting Ukraine, from refraining to support them and pressuring Russia,” Kallas told Fox News Digital in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.<\/p>\n

“What is important for us is that we are not afraid,” she continued. “Because otherwise this kind of intimidation actually pays off, and then we will see more of it across the world.”<\/p>\n

For Kallas, Russia\u2019s attempts to intimidate its European neighbors <\/a>carry a history that reaches well beyond the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Kristi, was just six months old in 1949 when Soviet authorities deported her \u2014 along with her mother and her grandmother \u2014 to Siberia during Stalin\u2019s mass deportations from the Baltic states. Kallas\u2019 maternal grandfather was separately sent to a Siberian prison camp.<\/p>\n

Kallas has recounted how her mother was transported east in a cattle car, with fellow deportees drying the infant\u2019s diapers against their own bodies during the freezing journey. The family spent roughly a decade in Siberia before they were allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.<\/p>\n

Kallas was born in Tallinn in 1977 and spent the first 14 years of her life under Soviet rule. Estonia restored its independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.<\/p>\n

FRONTLINE NATO ALLY SHARES SHOCKING TAKE ON RUSSIAN INVASION THREAT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Her family would go on to become deeply entwined with the new democratic Estonia. Her father, Siim Kallas, became the first president of the Bank of Estonia after gaining its independence, later serving as foreign minister and prime minister before moving to Brussels as a European commissioner.<\/p>\n

Kaja Kallas followed her own path from lawyer to member of Estonia\u2019s parliament and then the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

In 2021, she became Estonia\u2019s first female prime minister and three years later was chosen as the European Union\u2019s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy<\/a>. It was a historic moment \u2014 putting a politician who grew up under Soviet occupation at the center of Europe\u2019s response to Russian aggression on the continent.<\/p>\n

That history has made Kallas one of Europe\u2019s most prominent voices on Moscow \u2014 even as officials in her native Estonia and elsewhere along NATO\u2019s eastern flank<\/a> now caution against interpreting Russia\u2019s recent provocations as preparations for a conventional invasion.<\/p>\n

Russia invaded Ukraine more than four-and-a-half years ago and shows no signs of backing off despite repeated promises that negotiations for an end of war are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she agreed with Estonian and other Baltic officials who say they do not currently see Russia preparing for such an attack, Kallas instead pointed to Moscow\u2019s growing use of sabotage<\/a> and the importance of deterrence.<\/p>\n

“We see that Russia is actually increasing their sabotage acts in Europe,” Kallas said. “But of course how far they will go depends very much on us and whether we are investing enough in defense so that it acts as a deterrent.”<\/p>\n

The debate comes as NATO countries confront a string of Russian aircraft and drone incursions<\/a>, along with suspected sabotage and other hybrid activity across Europe. The incidents have fueled warnings in some European capitals that Moscow is probing the alliance for weaknesses, while officials closer to Russia have cautioned against equating those provocations with preparations for an invasion.<\/p>\n

US ALLIES NEED TO SHOOT DOWN RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT TESTING NATO BOUNDARIES, CZECH PRESIDENT WARNS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Fox News Digital in a separate interview this week that his country’s intelligence services see no indication Russia is preparing for a full-scale attack on NATO.<\/p>\n

“We have more and more this kind of panic in Europe that Russia will invade and will be full-scale aggressive against NATO and Europe and the Baltic states, Poland, but we don\u2019t see it,” Tsahkna said. “Our intelligence, we see very, very deep into Russia, we don\u2019t see any change.”<\/p>\n

Kallas, however, argued that Moscow’s actions are designed to weaken Western support for Ukraine rather than simply test NATO’s defenses.<\/p>\n

“Their goal is to intimidate us from not supporting Ukraine, from refraining to support them and pressuring Russia,” she said.<\/p>\n

The pressure campaign comes as Washington continues its push for a negotiated end to the war. Kallas said Moscow has yet to demonstrate that it is serious about reaching one.<\/p>\n

“They should start with stopping bombing the civilians,” she said, pointing to recent Russian attacks on Kyiv. “If they are serious about this, they should agree to a ceasefire, sit down at the negotiation table and talk to the Ukrainians.”<\/p>\n

Kallas said Ukraine has already agreed to an unconditional ceasefire while “Russia is just playing games,” arguing that coordinated pressure from Washington and its European allies could change Moscow’s calculations.<\/p>\n

“If America, Europe, UK, other strong players are all acting together in the same way to put in the sanctions, then actually we could have the effect that Russia understands that this is serious and they will sit down and negotiate,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Russia is trying to scare Europe into backing off its defense in the region, claims European Union\u2019s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who warns it will only lead to Moscow becoming more aggressive if it succeeds. “Their goal is to intimidate us from not supporting Ukraine, from refraining to support them and pressuring … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}