« MEven with North Korea's Kim Jong-un at his side, Putin remains smaller than the United States of Europe. » This is the message of mobilization launched, once again, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the European Parliament.
A thousand days after the start of the Russian invasion, President Metsola organized a special session in Brussels on Tuesday, November 19, offering the Ukrainian president the opportunity to address elected officials by video. Faced with an assembly largely won over to his cause, Volodymyr Zelensky calls on Europeans to resist the temptation to throw in the towel, especially after the victory of Trump whose intentions towards kyiv remain unclear. Despite a difficult context, President Zelensky's tone was more moderate than usual.
He warned of the growing presence of North Korean soldiers on his country's borders. “This contingent could reach 100,000 men,” he warned, while “some European leaders are thinking about elections” – a barely veiled allusion to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who faces early elections in February 2025 and has just had a controversial telephone interview with Vladimir Putin.
Putin's tankers are fueling the war
The Ukrainian head of state particularly insisted on the need to sanction Russia more harshly, in particular by attacking its “ghost fleet” of tankers which circumvents Western embargoes. “As long as these tankers operate, Putin continues to kill,” he insisted.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who was the first European leader to visit kyiv after the invasion, reaffirmed the institution's “unfailing” support. “We will be there today, tomorrow and every day, for as long as it takes,” she promised, stressing that this war is “an attack not only against Ukraine, but also against the order international rules-based framework. But it is not the MEPs who can loosen the purse strings or supply the Ukrainian regime with effective weapons… The Member States are the only ones who operate. The same day in Brussels, the defense ministers of the 27 met, as did the foreign ministers the day before.
China's growing involvement
“Putin does not seem ready to negotiate, but rather to continue the escalation,” warned Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, Monday evening. An analysis shared by Jean-Noël Barrot, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. “The situation in Ukraine is extremely difficult, with a permanent escalation orchestrated by Russia,” he observes, pointing to recent strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. If 80% of the missiles were neutralized, the 20% that reached their target destroyed 80% of the country's energy capabilities. Vladimir Putin knows the history of his country: he is waging the cold war. The one that has already condemned the armies of Napoleon and Hitler in the inhospitable lands of Eastern Europe.
Beijing's growing involvement is worrying. “China has become the leading supplier of dual-use goods supporting the Russian military industry,” warns Josep Borrell. A reality which pushes several member states to call for sanctions against the Chinese companies involved. “Without North Korea, without Iran, without China, Russia would not be able to maintain its military effort,” summarizes the head of European diplomacy. An observation which underlines the urgency of a coordinated response.
Olaf Scholz questioned over Taurus missiles
The American authorization granted to Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian territory comes very late. “Poland has been pleading for such a decision for months,” says Radosław Sikorski. For the Polish minister, it is a “necessary response to the entry into war of thousands of North Korean soldiers”. A position which shares the Baltic countries and Central Europe. Germany, for its part, remains in reserve, its chancellor Olaf Scholz still refusing the delivery of the missiles.
In the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, the president of the EPP (right), called on the German chancellor to “deliver now to Ukraine the necessary Taurus missiles”, while pleading for rapid accession of kyiv to NATO. A firm position that he justifies by the geopolitical dimension of the conflict. “Drones produced in Iran, North Korean soldiers fighting against Europeans on European soil. What other proof do you need of this geopolitical reality? » he asks.
Trump uncertainty
Same tone among his socialist colleague, the Spaniard Iratxe García Pérez, the president of the S & D group (social democrats). They don't often agree; Ukraine is an exception. “Ukraine will not win only by the force of words,” says the Spaniard, who calls for “not to bless the defeatist message of those who think that Ukraine cannot win the war.”ALSO READ “With his megalomania, Trump is a prime target for the Kremlin” The Italian from Fratelli d'Italia, Nicola Procaccini (ECR group, conservatives), chose to salute the Ukrainian resistance by recalling the Euromaidan revolution. “None of us, Western Europeans, can imagine a generation of high school students and young workers defying death by painting their faces in the colors of Europe,” he recalls, thus evoking the events of 2014. The co-president of the Greens, Terry Reintke, was particularly concerned about the possible re-election of Donald Trump, seeing it as “another alarm signal for the European Union”.
“Pacifists” in Renew’s sights
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A line very different from that defended by the Hungarian Kinga Gál (Patriots for Europe group), the representative of Viktor Orban. While condemning Russian aggression and recalling her country's massive humanitarian aid, she pleaded for a diplomatic solution, estimating that “the Union's Ukrainian strategy has not produced the expected hopes” and that “more the war continues, the more victims there will be.” Can peace taste like capitulation? Martin Schirdewan, for the far left (The Left group), is on exactly the same line: if the co-president of The Left expressed his “solidarity with the Ukrainian population who are desperately suffering”, he called for “getting out of the language military” and to increase political and economic pressure on Moscow rather than military aid.
It was the president of the Renew Europe group, Valérie Hayer, who responded most directly to these positions. “Some in this Parliament claim to be pacifists,” she said, “but let’s be clear: they are the allies of Vladimir Putin. » In a context of uncertainty over American support, she called on Europe to “never get used to this war on our doorstep” and to strengthen its military and financial support for kyiv. A message that echoes that of Volodymyr Zelensky, for whom “no one can enjoy calm waters in the middle of a storm”. A metaphor which well sums up the challenge of the coming months for Ukraine: maintaining European mobilization despite the growing weariness and the expected and feared decisions of Donald Trump.
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