Shoring up Ukraine and EU's defence

euronews (in English)

Faced with the potential disengagement of the United States from European defence and Russia's drastic conditions for a truth, let alone peace with Ukraine, the European Union is under pressure.

Transcript

00:00Russia has become, as I speak to you, a threat to France and Europe for the years to come.

00:06We must continue to help the Ukrainians resist,

00:10until they can negotiate with Russia a solid peace for themselves and for all of us.

00:15After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated

00:20in Europe's economic and security architecture.

00:24Others hoped that we could rely indefinitely on America's full protection.

00:29The time of illusions is over now.

00:31We need a surge in European defense, and we need it now.

00:36Faced with American disengagement in defense of Europe

00:40and Moscow's demands for peace with Ukraine,

00:43the European Union is at the forefront.

00:45Recovering its defense delay and strengthening military support for Ukraine

00:50are now priorities for the European executive.

00:55Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,

00:59the European Union has provided substantial financial,

01:02humanitarian and military support to Ukraine.

01:05It is more than half of the international aid to the country.

01:08The military aid of the Union to Ukraine amounts to 49.3 billion euros.

01:13Member countries, with the exception of Hungary,

01:15want to continue to provide it with weapons and ammunition.

01:18Some states, such as France or the United Kingdom,

01:22consider sending troops to Ukraine after a possible peace agreement,

01:25which does not make consensus.

01:28The bloc, which has no common army,

01:30however, wants to give itself the means to ensure its own defense,

01:33so far guaranteed by NATO.

01:3523 of the 32 states of the Atlantic Alliance are members of the European Union.

01:40However, the US military spending represents

01:43two-thirds of the total spending of other NATO countries for defense.

01:47Faced with the threat of American disengagement,

01:50the 27 countries of the Union approved the Rearm Europe plan last March.

01:54It must mobilize 800 billion euros for European defense by 2030.

02:04European defense ambitions will take time to materialize,

02:08and by then, many experts say,

02:10Ukraine must be helped to defend itself against Russia

02:13to ensure the security of Europe.

02:15But it is also a certainty for the Ukrainian military

02:19that I met last February in the east of Ukraine,

02:22where the fighting continues to rage.

02:25We are not only fighting for the freedom of Ukraine,

02:28we are fighting for the security of the whole of Europe.

02:31A few weeks before the talks on a potential truce,

02:34this officer exhorted the European leaders to distrust.

02:38If Europe thinks that any moment of freezing the conflict,

02:42solving the territorial issue in Ukraine,

02:45will reduce the danger of a Russian invasion of France,

02:49it should not be believed.

02:54This conflict is not local, it is more global.

02:57Therefore, it is necessary to consider that this war concerns everyone.

03:01That's how it is.

03:03The opinion shared by Maxim,

03:05an officer of civil-military cooperation in the Ukrainian army.

03:09Any concession to Russia, he says,

03:13especially in territorial matters,

03:16will only make the appetite of Moscow.

03:19France did not want to give Germany some territories for peace.

03:23England also does not want to give its islands to Argentina for peace.

03:27Why Ukraine, which has been a sovereign state since 1991,

03:31and which has people who live there and want to return,

03:35should give something to them?

03:38There will always be desires.

03:41They will never end.

03:44And he will say every time,

03:47today Donbass, Lugansk, Crimea,

03:50tomorrow Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, then Dnipro,

03:53and so on.

03:56We will not remain just a country thanks to such desires.

03:59Therefore, I believe that there can be no steps,

04:02because if you act once, you will have to act again.

04:06Vladimir Putin's ambitions,

04:09emphasizes the officer,

04:12as well as the number of European leaders,

04:15will not be limited to Ukraine.

04:18I think that if it was possible to say something in Brussels,

04:21then it would be possible to show them

04:24what the state does today,

04:27which says that it frees us from denazification, militarization,

04:30and everything else.

04:33There is a video, a photo,

04:36where they just kill people, shoot and cut off their heads.

04:39What else can we agree on and talk about?

04:42Well, if they want, they will see it for themselves.

04:45Because they will go.

04:48They are pumping their people with such information

04:51that their children will not go to Berlin.

04:54Today someone from Europe is willing to see

04:57this hero in Berlin who kills everything he sees.

05:04Excluded and to be discussed by Washington and Moscow,

05:07can the European Union really weigh

05:10on the outcome of the war in Ukraine?

05:13I interviewed Steven Evert,

05:16director of the Institute of Security Studies of the European Union.

05:34I believe that these negotiations are going to take very long

05:37and are unlikely to resolve quickly

05:40into some sort of sustainable peace agreement.

05:43The risk is that there is some sort of bilateral agreement

05:46between the United States and Russia

05:49on conditions that are unacceptable to us

05:52when it comes to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,

05:55or perhaps the freedom of Ukraine to choose its own alliances,

05:58or perhaps limitations

06:01on Ukraine's armed forces

06:04to resist future aggression.

06:07Putin still wants the subjugation

06:10of Ukraine.

06:13So we have to continue to support Ukraine

06:16to resist this war as long as possible.

06:19And that Ukraine is also able to say no

06:22to a deal that is unacceptable to them

06:25and is unacceptable to us.

06:28What more can the European Union do?

06:31Is the idea of sending troops on the ground

06:34a realistic option?

06:37I will mention two things that Europe can do and should do right now.

06:40As you know, European countries and other countries

06:43are training Ukrainian forces

06:46but outside of Ukraine.

06:49And it will be much more efficient if such training

06:52took place inside Ukraine.

06:55What Europeans can do right now is help Ukraine

06:58not just with ammunition but also with air defence.

07:01So there is a greater degree of capacity to

07:04withstand these relentless bombardments by Russia

07:07day in, day out.

07:10Finally, on this idea of forces and boots on the ground,

07:13let's not call it a peacekeeping force.

07:16This is not like countries in other parts of the world

07:19that went to the United Nations and then we had blue helmets

07:22and there were European troops and maybe there were troops

07:25also from other Asian countries.

07:28No, come on. We are not neutral also in this fight.

07:31We are on the side of Ukraine.

07:34The idea that we are sort of peacekeepers

07:37in the middle between Russia and Ukraine

07:40is not the way to think about it.

07:43The way to think about it is can we shore up the capacity of Ukraine

07:46to defend itself. We should not call it peacekeeping

07:50This is the end of this edition of European Stories.

07:53Thank you for following us.

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