Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has warned that any European envoy sent to negotiate directly with Vladimir Putin risks being recruited by the Russian leader, whom he described as a "KGB operative" rather than a conventional statesman. In an interview with Euronews, Yatsenyuk urged European capitals not to underestimate Putin's tactical acumen, arguing that the Kremlin sees dialogue not as a path to peace but as an opportunity to divide and weaken its opponents.
"Please do not underestimate this war criminal. He's not an idiot. He's a KGB operative," Yatsenyuk said. "Putin will choose someone he can recruit." Drawing on his own encounters with the Russian president, Yatsenyuk described a leader who constantly tests interlocutors for weakness. "He always has a sense of whether you are weak or you are strong. So he makes a sniff test of each person he meets," the former prime minister recalled.
No Genuine Interest in Talks
Yatsenyuk insisted that Putin is not ready for any meaningful dialogue at this stage. "Putin is not eager, he is not ready for any kind of talks at this particular juncture. Maybe he would accept some kind of negotiator with the only very simple and obvious reason to buy time and once again to outweigh it and to shit us," he said. The only language the Kremlin understands, Yatsenyuk argued, is the language of force. "The only language Putin understands is the language of force and strength."
He dismissed the notion that the identity of a potential EU envoy matters. "It is not about the names of potential candidates, but about Europe's policy," Yatsenyuk said. "Putin is not ready to accept anyone ... But Putin is ready to accept Ukraine's and actually European's surrender. And we have to realise this."
This assessment comes as European Union member states debate the merits of opening a direct channel to Moscow, a discussion that has gained urgency amid Russian threats to diplomats in Kyiv and the Baltic states. Yatsenyuk linked the Kremlin's recent intimidation tactics—including drone incursions into Baltic airspace—to a broader strategy of psychological warfare against the EU and NATO. "Russia poses a huge threat to the security of the European Union and it was obvious that Russia will try to intimidate everyone, mainly the European Union," he said. "This is a part of Russia's proxies war against the European Union and NATO. They want to intimidate the people of the European Union and they believe that in this case they will urge Europeans to turn its back on Ukrainians."
Despite the pressure, Yatsenyuk expressed confidence that such a scenario "will never come to fruition." He argued that the Kremlin's escalation is a sign of weakness, not strength. "Putin is losing the war. Because he expected to take over Ukraine 12 years ago," he said, referring to the 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea. "Then he waged an all-out war and he was actually excited to grab Kyiv in three days. In the end, he lost around 1.5 million of the Russian soldiers."
Economic Strain and Escalation
With the Russian economy under growing strain from sanctions and war expenditure, Yatsenyuk suggested that internal debates are emerging within Russia about Putin's exit strategy. "There is some kind of skimmering even inside Russia what is the best way out for Putin," he noted. But he predicted that the Russian leader's only viable option is to escalate further. "It is about his physical stance, his physical ability to survive as Mr Putin and his political ability to survive as the president of Russia. So he will escalate."
Yatsenyuk also broadened the scope of the conflict, pointing to China's role as a strategic enabler of Russia's war effort. "China still has an upper hand in this war and China is an accomplice," he said, rejecting Beijing's official neutrality. "They are strategic partners with Putin. They signed a number of deals. They provided the bloodline for Putin's Russia, both financial and dual-use materials, which is actually military." While he acknowledged that the chances of persuading China to pressure Moscow are "very low, but still they exist," he argued that such leverage could be the key to holding real talks.
Yatsenyuk was dismissive of past diplomatic efforts, including former US President Donald Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska last year. "It has nothing to do with the real peace talks. It was a special KGB operation in order just to outweigh both Americans and Ukrainians and to circumvent sanctions," he said. He claimed that Moscow's aim was to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, and that "now it became obvious even for Americans that Russians were not eager to hold any kind of talks."
Without sustained diplomatic pressure, Yatsenyuk warned, Russia has escalated its aggression beyond Ukraine, now openly threatening European countries where air raid sirens have sounded for the first time in recent weeks. The development has brought a new sense of urgency to the EU's defence readiness, as member states confront the reality that the war in Ukraine is no longer a distant conflict but one with direct implications for the continent's security architecture.
