When she took office, EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas warned of the danger of a rift between the US and Europe in support of Ukraine. As the first real peace negotiations get underway, Kallas is being accused of bringing that rift about.

As bne IntelliNews reported, the rift has widened in the last week, thanks to the EU’s extreme stance on a potential peace deal and its maximalist views, policies that Kallas is nominally in charge of.

Special envoy to Ukraine, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg said that from the original US sponsored 28-point peace plan (28PPP) only two points remain to be agreed following talks over the weekend. However, tellingly, after the EU was consulted on the plan at the Geneva summit on November 23, its various suggestions in the 19-point peace plan (19PPP) and the European Parliament non-binding resolution (EPR) on November 27, were rejected by both the White House and Kremlin as unworkable.

They were packed with maximalist demands, like Nato membership for Ukraine and Nato troops stationed in Ukraine that were obvious non-starters for the Kremlin, not an attempt at compromises to bring about an agreement. As a result Europe has been entirely excluded from talks on the 27-point peace plan (27PPP) that is now in play following last week’s meeting in Moscow.

It is Kallas’ unrealistic and maximalist approach to the conflict that exacerbates the problem. Her hardline stance, ignoring history and refusing any dialogue with the Kremlin that has led to Europe's isolation. The White House is affronted by the “Estonianisation” of Europe’s foreign policy, which it believes clashes with its own national security interests.

Kallas was always going to rub the White House up the wrong way. US President Donald Trump has been remarkably soft on Russia. The president has only imposed one set of sanctions – new oil sanctions at the end of October targeting the two largest oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil – but last week softened those sanctions as peace talks gather momentum, to allow Lukoil petrol stations in the US to continue to operate until April, according to Reuters.

For her part, Kallas is widely seen as a staunch critic of Russia and one of the most outspoken Russia hawks among EU leaders. Her position on Russia is consistent, vocal, and closely aligned with Nato’s eastern flank—particularly the Baltic states' long-standing concerns about Russian aggression.

The US has fundamentally downgraded Europe in its new National Security Strategy (NSS) that was released on December 5. The document makes it clear the long-standing transatlantic “special relation” between the US and EU is over, and was almost scathing in its criticism of not only Europe’s economic problems but its political and cultural “failings.”

The new policy follows on from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s controversial Munich Security Conference (MSC) speech in February where he roasted the EU’s democratic failings, criticised its migration policies, and told delegates that “US support may not last forever.” All those points have reappeared in the new NSS. The address was met by silence in the hall, and then later denounced by scores of European politicians as “not acceptable.”

Kallas’ ingrained Europeanism and anti-Russian stand runs counter to the “commercial diplomacy” the White House has adopted. She has come in for increasing criticism for her uncompromising, even extreme, positions which almost obsessively focuses on Russia.

"The EU’s top diplomat is a gift to the Kremlin. Kaja Kallas’ hardline position isn’t helping Ukraine,” The Telegraph reported on December 7 in an article by Owen Matthews, a veteran Russia reporter.

“Europe is not at the table even as the future security architecture of the continent is being hammered out. Rather than engaging with the ugly reality of talking to the Russians, Kallas and her fellow European leaders have chosen ideological purity over practical diplomacy,” Matthews wrote. “Her steadfast refusal to speak to Putin and insistence that justice is more important than peace has helped ensure that Europe is effectively excluded from the endgame of negotiations.”

Top White House officials are reportedly irritated by what they describe as the “Estonianisation” of Europe’s foreign policy and have barely engaged with her, despite her role as the EU’s top diplomat in charge of foreign policy. To some degree, the NSS is a reaction to the uncompromising policy Kallas stands for that will get in the way of the US’ obvious commercial interest in doing business with Russia.

She can be abrasive. During a meeting with the Belgian authorities in Brussels last week, she was openly criticised by them for condescending and uncompromising position on the need for Brussels to approve using frozen Russian assets in Euroclear to underpin the mooted Reparation Loan, according to some reports. Belgium has not officially commented on the meeting.

On the question of the legality of seizing this money both Kallas and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are increasingly out of step with the other members of the EU, from Hungary to Belgium, and in the meantime both the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have come out against the plan.

Kallas remains a resolute supporter of the Ukrainian cause just as the mood on its prospects blackens. As bne IntelliNews reported, the Western coverage of Ukraine is becoming steadily more negative in recent months. The Telegraph report comes on the heels of an investigation by The New York Times (NYT) exposing deep seated corruption in the Zelenskiy administration that will be a major embarrassment for Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin).

However, she has also been the target of Russian disinformation. Kallas was reportedly excluded from EU’s defence strategy due to her “uncoordinated” and “incompetent” actions, The Insider reported, based on Russia’s Foreign Intelligence services (SVR) reports. However, The Insider is a Russian publication and not to be confused with The Insider Russia, a well-respected opposition publication reporting on Russia that is often quoted by the Western media.