Moscow’s large-scale attack launched on Ukraine erases any lingering doubts about where Russia’s dictator wants to go. Vladimir Putin is taking back part of the Soviet empire and attacking the European post-War order.
The Dictator has made no secret of his plans: not only does he want to wipe Ukraine off the map as an independent state, he has also declared war on the entire European order of peace and stability.
The man in the Kremlin wants to return to what he considers the golden age of the Soviet Empire. With this delusional desire, however, he goes much further than every Soviet leader who arrived after Stalin: Nikita Khrushchev as well as Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov all respected the limits of the post-War European order.
Vladimir Putin does not care about treaties, either the old CSCE treaty, which declared European borders inviolable, or the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Moscow guaranteed Kyiv’s independence. The first step has now been taken: the attack on Ukraine, and Putin’s goal will be to transform the state into a vassal entity.
The Russian dictator will not rest until the states of the former Soviet Union have degenerated entirely into puppets whose strings are pulled in Moscow. The third step is aimed at the members of the former Warsaw Pact.
Unfortunately, Ukraine can only be helped to a very limited extent: if the West were to intervene militarily, the danger of nuclear war would be too great. It is a tragedy: if things go badly, Ukraine will fare just as Czechoslovakia did during the Prague Spring of 1968. Back then, the Western world watched helplessly with tears in its eyes as Soviet tanks rolled through Prague. Today, as then, hearts and doors should be open to the refugees. Generously and without bureaucratic hurdles they should be accepted in the EU. Forever, if necessary.
Not mutch more can be done for Ukraine. But everything else can be prevented. If Putin wants to push NATO back to the old Yalta borders of Europe, it should now be made clear to him as quickly as possible: We will not die for Ukraine in view of a possible world conflagration, but we will die for fellow members of NATO.
Although the rule used to state that NATO troops would not be permanently stationed in the eastern NATO states, the agreement with Moscow no longer applies since the attack on Ukraine. NATO allies should be permanently stationed in all states from Poland to Latvia, from Romania to Lithuania, if their governments so wish.
If Putin does not dismantle his missiles in Königsberg, he will also have to reckon with Western missile silos in the eastern NATO area. This attack on Ukraine must cost Russia deerly, especially politically.
As if that were not enough, Russia as a whole must now be placed under sanctions. Its population – the majority of which was easily intoxicated with the fiery booze of the victory bulletins after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 – must feel that Putin’s villainy will affect them as well.
Make no mistake: Europeans will suffer, too. Sanctions and the now necessary military rearmament – including the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr! – will have a major impact. Especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. But letting Putin have his way would mean giving up our freedom sooner or later.
What is more important: peace or freedom? The West has answered this question for itself: freedom. But those who consider peace the highest good should at least keep in mind the words of Henry Kissinger: “Whenever peace – conceived as the avoidance of war – has been the primary objective of a power or a group of powers, the international system has been at the mercy of the most ruthless member of the international community.”
Words: Jacques Schuster / February 24, 2022 / Die Welt / English edition - Worldcrunch.
