HASAs the war imposed by Russia on Ukraine enters its third year, kyiv is facing arguably the worst situation since the failure of the initial offensive launched by Vladimir Putin. For weeks, the news from the front has not been good. Ammunition is running out, weariness is gaining ground. The resilience of Ukrainian society is being tested.
This fatigue is all the more legitimate since, for the attacked country, this war actually began ten years ago, after the Maidan revolution. As soon as Ukraine indisputably expressed its desire to turn towards Europe and the West, the master of the Kremlin opened hostilities to signify that this expression of independence and sovereignty was unacceptable to him.
The war was first of all revealing in Russia an imperialism which justifies all monstrosities, such as the bombardments ad nauseam of a territory where the civilians are not distinguished from the military. But today it highlights a tragic temptation in the United States. That of cowardice, of renouncing to come to the aid of a nation fighting for its freedom even though not a single American soldier is exposed to the fury of the fighting.
This temptation constitutes a terrible threat to Ukraine, which would not have been able to withstand the first Russian assaults without the powerful military support provided by Democratic President Joe Biden. The latter is now hampered in Congress by a Republican Party that has moved in a generation from limitless interventionism to the opposite excess. Under the deleterious influence of Donald Trump, he no longer has anything to say to the world.
Russian flight forward
This American stunting, whether or not it is recorded during the presidential election of November 5, must be a final alarm signal for Europeans. What is happening in the East concerns them much more directly than they have been willing to recognize until now. A new age is dawning.
In the mind of its Russian instigator, the war in Ukraine is not fought with the objective of achieving territorial negotiations in the best possible posture. For Vladimir Putin, who must be taken at his word on this point, this is an existential conflict, waged against the system of values which constitutes the heart of the European model. Everything bears witness to this: the stuffing of Russian skulls carried out on an industrial scale, the transformation of the country’s economy into a war economy which can only fuel the warmongering at work, the militarization of minds, the work of undermining the Western opinions, or even the ferocious stifling of any form of dissent.
This Russian headlong rush, combined with the possibility of an American withdrawal, and therefore a weakening of NATO, is forcing the Europeans to prepare as quickly as possible to ensure their own security, which begins in Ukraine. They can only achieve this united, as with all the other challenges they have had and will have to face, from pandemics to climate issues, whatever the sovereignists profess who think about the future with their eyes fixed on a bygone past.
The challenge is colossal. So far, European leaders have lived up to history. They must now assume a heavy task of convincing their people. The threat is there, pretending to ignore it would be inexcusable.