ATs we celebrate the disastrous first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many fear another massive Russian attack. The intelligence services of Western countries, such as the two speeches given by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first on February 21 before the Duma, then the second the next day at a gigantic meeting, leave little doubt. on the intentions of the master of the Kremlin.
We are very likely to enter a new phase of the conflict and peace, which must be our only objective, still seems a long way off. On this occasion, we, environmentalists, would like to reaffirm our full and complete support for the Ukrainian people.
While the head of the Norwegian army estimated on 22 January that the conflict had already caused more than 300,000 deaths, including at least 30,000 civilians, we believe that it is also necessary to change approach, to put an end to what will remain as one of the greatest tragedies of this beginning of XXIe century. First, by dramatically speeding up the delivery of arms and finally adopting a European approach to it. Over the past year, the French army has, among other things, provided eighteen Caesar guns, a few dozen Milan anti-tank missiles and around fifteen TRF1 towed guns, which only places it in tenth position on the international scene behind, for example, Poland.
Incomprehensible and unacceptable
While new announcements of deliveries were made at the Munich Security Conference, confirmed by US President Joe Biden during his surprise visit to Kiev on February 20, France still refuses to deliver Leclerc tanks to the Ukrainians, unlike the English, the Germans and of course the Americans. It is incomprehensible and unacceptable. We are calling for these deliveries and also hope that, like Josep Borrell, France will support the Estonian proposal for the joint purchase of ammunition by the European Union (EU), which today is sorely lacking in Ukrainians.
Emmanuel Macron keeps saying that he is in favor of a real Europe of defence, which we environmentalists have always supported. It is time to move from words to deeds. Last but not least, we must radically change our attitude on the international scene. During the interview he gave to several media, published on February 18, the President of the Republic affirmed that the unity of Europeans and the Western camp is one of Vladimir Putin’s greatest failures. For our part, we affirm that the distrust of the rest of the world, and in particular of the countries of the South, with regard to military support for Ukraine, if it can unfortunately be explained, is our greatest failure.
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