Ukraine slams 'dangerous' initiative to restart EU-Russia summits

"Initiatives to resume EU summits with Russia without seeing any progress from the Russian side will be a dangerous deviation from EU sanctions policy," Dmytro Kuleba said after meeting the EU's foreign policy chief in Brussels. 

"The decision to freeze summits between the EU and Russia was taken in 2014 against the background of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Unfortunately, Russia has not demonstrated any will to change its policy, neither towards Ukraine, nor towards the EU, and we believe that the resumption of summits is groundless."

Berlin and Paris on Wednesday put forward a last minute proposal ahead of a meeting in Brussels of EU leaders for the bloc to contemplate a potential summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of US President Joe Biden's sit-down with him in Geneva last week. 

But there remains resistance from numerous EU members states -- especially in eastern Europe -- who were blindsided by the push and remain deeply wary of talking to the Kremlin.

EU ambassadors failed to thrash out a common position on the proposal late Wednesday and left it for the leaders to hammer out the details.

The 27-nation bloc is looking to revamp its strategy on keeping its vast eastern neighbour in check as Brussels admits that relations with the Kremlin look set to deteriorate further despite having already reached their "lowest level".

The German-French plan insists the EU has to stand firm and united on Moscow, but should look to engage with the Kremlin on issues of mutual interest such as climate change, health, the Iran nuclear deal and conflicts in Syria and Libya. 

Proposed draft conclusions put forward by Berlin and Paris for the EU summit say the bloc "will review the existing formats of dialogue with Russia, including at Leaders' level".

But they also lay out that leaders will ask the European Commission "to present options for additional restrictive measures, including economic sanctions" to push back against "any further malign, illegal and disruptive activity by Russia".