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NEW YORK — Russia is trying to scare Europe into backing down on its defense in the region, says the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, who warns that it will only lead Moscow to become more aggressive if it succeeds.
“Their goal is to intimidate us from supporting Ukraine, to refrain from supporting Ukraine and to put pressure on Russia,” Kallas said on Fox News Digital in an interview on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“What is important for us is that we are not afraid,” she continued. “Because otherwise, this kind of intimidation pays off, and we’ll see more of it around the world.”
For Kallas, Russia’s attempts to intimidate its European neighbors have a history that goes well beyond the war in Ukraine.
Kaja Kallas says Russia is trying to scare Europe into withdrawing from Ukraine, a strategy that the European Union’s top diplomat says will only become more aggressive if it succeeds. (Fox News Digital)
Her mother, Kristi, was just six months old in 1949 when Soviet authorities deported her — along with her mother and grandmother — to Siberia during Stalin’s mass deportations from the Baltic states. Kallas’ maternal grandfather was sent separately to a Siberian prison camp.
Kallas recounted how her mother was transported east in a cattle car, while other deportees dried the baby’s diapers against their own bodies during the frigid journey. The family spent about a decade in Siberia before being allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.
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, when the Soviet Union collapsed.
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His family would become deeply connected to the new democratic Estonia. His father, Siim Kallas, became the first president of the Bank of Estonia after gaining independence, then served as foreign minister and prime minister before moving to Brussels as European commissioner.
Kaja Kallas followed her own path from lawyer to member of the Estonian Parliament and then the European Parliament.
In 2021, she became Estonia’s first female Prime Minister, and three years later she was chosen as the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. It was a historic moment: placing a politician who grew up under Soviet occupation at the center of the European response to Russian aggression on the continent.
The story has made Kallas one of the most prominent European voices on Moscow — even as officials in his native Estonia and elsewhere along NATO’s eastern flank now warn against interpreting Russia’s recent provocations as preparations for a conventional invasion.
Russia invaded Ukraine more than four and a half years ago and shows no signs of backing down despite repeated promises that negotiations to end the war are underway.
Asked whether she agrees with Estonian and Baltic officials who say they do not currently see Russia preparing for such an attack, Kallas instead pointed to Moscow’s increasing reliance on sabotage and the importance of deterrence.
“We see that Russia is increasing its acts of sabotage in Europe,” Kallas said. “But of course, how far they go depends a lot on us and whether we can invest enough in defense for it to have a deterrent effect.”
The debate comes as NATO countries face a series of incursions by Russian planes and drones, as well as suspicions of sabotage and other hybrid activities across Europe. The incidents fueled warnings in some European capitals that Moscow would investigate weaknesses in the alliance, while officials closer to Russia warned against equating such provocations with preparations for invasion.
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Kaja Kallas (left), Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (right) speak to the media. (Thierry Monassé/Getty Images)
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Fox News Digital this week that her country’s intelligence services see no indication that Russia is preparing for a full-scale attack on NATO.
“We have more and more this kind of panic in Europe that Russia is going to invade and will be aggressive on a large scale against NATO, Europe and the Baltics, Poland, but we don’t see it,” Tsahkna said. “Our intelligence, we observe it very, very deeply in Russia, we see no change.”
Kallas, however, argued that Moscow’s actions are aimed at weakening Western support for Ukraine rather than simply testing NATO defenses.
“Their goal is to intimidate us from supporting Ukraine, to refrain from supporting Ukraine and to put pressure on Russia,” she said.
The pressure campaign comes as Washington continues to push for a negotiated end to the war. Kallas said Moscow has yet to demonstrate that it is serious about achieving this.
“They should start by stopping bombing civilians,” she said, pointing to recent Russian attacks on kyiv. “If they are serious, they should agree to a ceasefire, sit down at the negotiating table and talk to the Ukrainians.”
State emergency services put out a fire after a massive Russian drone and missile attack on the capital Kyiv, July 4, 2025. ((Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images))
Kallas said Ukraine had already agreed to an unconditional ceasefire while “Russia was just playing games”, arguing that coordinated pressure from Washington and its European allies could change Moscow’s calculations.
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“If America, Europe, the UK and other powerful actors all act together in the same way to impose sanctions, then we could have the effect of Russia understanding that this is serious and they will sit down and negotiate,” she said.
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