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“Next year, let’s meet here for a post-war conference, for a free Europe and a free world.” This is how he said goodbye Volodimir Zelensky after his virtual intervention at the Munich Conference, the main world forum for debate on international security. The President of Ukraine implies that his country could achieve victory against the “Goliath” of the Kremlin this yearbut provided that the Western allies accelerate the delivery of all types of weapons, including tanks and war fighters.
“There are no alternatives to speed, because lives depend on speed. Delays have always been and will always be a mistake. While we are negotiating how to strengthen our defense with modern tanks, the Kremlin is thinking of ways to strangle Moldova. While we are trying to convince that Ukraine needs modern fighter jets, the Kremlin has already convinced the Iranian regime,” Zelensky complained.
The Ukrainian president insists that “there is no alternative to Ukraine’s victory” and refuses to make any concessions to Vladimir Putin. “It is obvious that Ukraine is not going to be the last stop for him. It will continue its offensive including all the other states that were at some point part of the Soviet bloc.“, Zelenski has warned.
[La OTAN enfría el envío de cazas a Ucrania pero pide aumentar el gasto militar más allá del 2%]
However, the European leaders who have intervened in the Munich Conference have been much less optimistic than the President of Ukraine about the duration of the conflict. Both the German chancellor, Olaf Schölzlike the French president Emmanuel Macron, they take it for granted that the war (which is about to complete a year) will still last many months. Putin is unwilling to give up his imperial ambitions and the only thing the EU can do is speed up arms shipments to kyiv and bolster its own military industry.
“I think it’s sensible to prepare for a long war and it is sensible to convey to Putin the message that we are ready to stand by Ukraine’s side all the time and that we will support the country consistently,” Scholz said. “It is not the shipment of arms that is prolonging the war, quite the opposite.. The sooner President Putin realizes that he cannot achieve his imperial goals, the more chances that the war will soon end with the withdrawal of the occupying Russian forces,” the foreign minister said.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky during his virtual speech at the Munich Security Conference
However, Scholz has defended his strategy of maximum “caution” when it comes to providing military assistance to kyiv, which has cost him harsh criticism from his partners. “We are ensuring that war between NATO and Russia does not break out. We will continue to find the balance between providing the best possible support to Ukraine and avoiding an unwanted escalation,” the foreign minister insisted.
“Right now, the time for dialogue has not yet come because Russia has chosen warRussia has chosen to intensify this war, Russia has decided to attack civilian infrastructure and commit war crimes,” Emmanuel Macron denounced.
[Alarma en la OTAN al agotarse las reservas de municiones por su envío masivo a Ucrania]
“In the short term, the situation is simple: Russia cannot and should not win this war. Russia’s attack must fail. We cannot allow the use of force and violence to be normalized because that would put world stability at risk,” said the French president.
“We must intensify our support for the Ukrainian people so that they Ukraine itself can launch a counteroffensive in order to be able to enter later, under credible circumstances, into a negotiation process chosen by Ukraine. The coming weeks and months will be decisive. But we are also willing to sustain a longer conflict. Nobody wants this, but we must be credible in our perseverance,” Macron insisted.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, during his speech this Friday at the Munich Security Conference
In any case, the French president says he does not believe in the theory of a “regime change” in Russia, that is, in which the fall of Putin is the precondition for peace. Of course, France asks the rest of the EU partners to urgently increase military investment and announces the convening of a conference to strengthen the continent’s air defense.
A victory for the Kremlin in Ukraine would encourage other authoritarian regimes like China to resort to force and military aggression to achieve their goalshas warned the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. “My main message to the people of Ukraine (but also to Moscow) is that NATO allies and partners will support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg said in Munich.
“We cannot allow President Putin to win this war. It will be a tragedy for Ukrainians, but also dangerous for us (…) We know that Beijing is closely watching the war in Ukraine. Because if President Putin wins there, this will also have an impact on the calculations and decisions made in Beijing,” says the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance.
