“To end Russia’s aggression, the most effective solution is to integrate Ukraine into NATO by 2025”

LOn August 26, Ukraine suffered, once again, a barbaric attack by Russia. Almost the entire country was targeted by a rain of missiles and drones. Energy infrastructures were destroyed. Russia’s stated goal is to terrorize the population and freeze Ukrainians during the winter.

Ukrainians have been clamoring for protection of their skies since February 2022. In addition, Ukraine needs long-range weapons and permission from its partners to strike Russian targets with them. But it seems as if the West continues to view this war as an external theater.

However, the hybrid war waged by Russia against Western democracies has already had unprecedented effects: massive cyber attacks, organization of a system of migratory pressure on the European Union, targeted assassinations in Europe, energy blackmail, maneuvers to destabilize Western political life, an aggressive policy of ousting French influence in Africa, financing of all groups opposed to democracy, in Germany as in New Caledonia. In addition, the Kremlin has made no secret, since 2021, that its objective was for NATO to give up welcoming the countries that have joined it since 1999, from Poland to the Baltic countries, from Hungary to Romania.

Currently, the European Union devotes less than 0.1% of its wealth to militarily supporting Ukraine. There is therefore an urgent need to radically change our position. You cannot push back totalitarian and genocidal dictatorships with a policy of avoiding confrontation, especially when you are more powerful. The most effective solution, supported by France, to put an end to Russia’s aggression is to integrate Ukraine into NATO as early as 2025 at the next summit in The Hague.

Red line

So far, some countries such as the United States and Germany have opposed it to avoid “climbing” and because “NATO cannot integrate a country whose borders are disputed”. Both arguments have been deconstructed by top NATO experts, from Petr Pavel, the current Czech president, to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, and Kurt Volker, the former US ambassador to NATO. For them, the escalation is already at its peak on the Russian side. When a country has been bombing civilian populations daily for thirty-six months, including children’s hospitals, it is hard to see how the West would raise the stakes by protecting a country under attack. Conversely, the decision to integrate Ukraine into NATO would put an end to the grey areas that are so attractive to dictators.

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