Guest: Let’s not betray Ukraine

In a column in Le Monde, published on December 26, a collective of personalities and citizens including Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Ariane Mnouchkine, General Vincent Desportes, Adam Michnik and yours truly, calls for the establishment of a coalition between European states agreed on some vital measures for a country which defends its freedom and protects ours. Ukraine is going through distressing times. The Russian army, with a military budget of 106 billion euros, which it wants to increase to 135 billion in 2025, is continuing its invasion at the cost of tens of thousands of deaths and the systematic destruction of the country’s vital infrastructure. Ukraine: its energy plants, its hospitals, its factories. […] This coalition could agree on the following measures:

– ensure the financing of the necessary weapons, requested by kyiv, by confiscating and transferring to Ukraine the 210 billion euros [environ 202 milliards d’euros] of assets of the Central Bank of Russia currently blocked in Europe (the current loan from the European Union may, for its part, be based on other guarantees). Not only is this confiscation authorized by international law, but the emergency justifies it: the needs of the country ruined by the war of aggression, estimated by the World Bank at 483 billion dollars on 1^isJanuary 2024, today amount to almost 800 billion dollars, according to the Ukrainian government. This would also strengthen European collective sovereignty on the international scene;

– protect the sky and the northern border of Ukraine. By authorizing the Ukrainians to strike in Russia, with the weapons we provide them, all the military sites from which attacks on Moscow originate; by providing a significant quantity of batteries and anti-aircraft vectors, in order to stop the destruction of civilian infrastructure; by neutralizing, with the help of our air and anti-aircraft forces, from European space, medium and long-range missiles and drones launched against Ukrainian cities; by sending, finally, prepositioned military forces, brought together by the coalition of willing countries.

The best answer

Responsible for logistics missions (training, maintenance and repair, mine clearance, medical and health support), they would also ensure surveillance of Ukraine’s border with Belarus. This would allow Ukrainian troops immobilized in these positions to return to the front. This defensive presence would be the best response to the involvement alongside the Russian forces of troops from the totalitarian regime of Kim Jong-un and the sign of our determination, in order to dissuade Putin from going further;

– refuse any ceasefire agreement that does not take into account the human (and not just territorial) dimension of the Russian invasion: no Ukrainian must be held against their will in Russia or in the occupied territories. The return to Ukraine of populations deported by the Russian army, including tens of thousands of kidnapped children, must be non-negotiable. On the other hand, any ceasefire agreement must take into consideration the security of Ukraine, on which the status of a demilitarized or neutral state cannot be imposed. NATO member countries must invite it to join them, as requested by kyiv, and extend the Alliance’s protection to territories under Ukrainian control from 2025.

Whatever Kremlin propaganda says, none of these measures involve going to war with Russia. Their cost is limited. They are vital for a country that defends its freedom and protects ours. It’s time for Europe: let’s not betray Ukraine!

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