Bernard Guetta’s op-ed published in the “Opinion” on 23 August 2022
By fighting for freedom, Ukraine is fighting for our peace as well, and it is not a mere figure of speech
It is not only emotion, admiration and compassion that the heroism of the Ukrainian resistance inspires. These feelings alone would fully justify the solidarity of all of Europe. It would already be a disgrace for us even to ignore the crime committed against this people and the courage they have shown. It would put us on the side of aggression even to deny Ukraine the weapons it so desperately needs. It would be a mockery of all morality even to forget this war and to turn our eyes away from it, but there is more, much more.
By my presence in Kyiv on Wednesday 24 August, the day of both the thirty-first anniversary of national independence and the six months of fighting to preserve it, I would like to say, as a Member of the European Parliament, two other things to the Ukrainians, to the French and to all Europeans.
The first is that by fighting for its freedom, Ukraine is also fighting for ours, and that this is not just a figure of speech.
It is a fact, because let us imagine for a moment that crime prevails.
Mr Xi would feel free to go ahead and conquer Taiwan. All the Neros of the world, big and small, would soon come to the conclusion that democracies have lost their strength, that the future lies with dictatorships, and that they now have their hands free. As for the anthropophagus in the Kremlin, he would think that he was right, that the United States and Europe have fallen into decadence and that, once Ukraine has been reconquered, nothing would prevent him from testing the strength of the Atlantic Alliance on the margins of the empire that he would like to reconstitute.
Peace in Europe.
By fighting for freedom, its own and ours, Ukraine is fighting for the peace of Europe, of Asia – at the end of the day for the freedom of the world, but let’s see now what will happen when Vladimir Putin will have failed because, yes, of course, he is going to fail. He will try everything, he will not back down from anything. Maybe he will proclaim the annexation of new Ukrainian lands that he will have only occupied, but one day Russia will see Ukraine, with its wounds healed, its tears wiped away, its sobs swallowed, building a country of the 21st century on the ruins of a past century, a democratic, modern, prosperous country that will be ever closer to the European Union, which it will be joining with great strides, and on that day, the Russian people, the real Russia, will resume its march towards democracy.
Russia will do so because its new urban middle classes aspire to freedom, to Europe and to democracy. It will do so because its future is to become a partner of the European Union and not a vassal of China. It will do so because Russia is European in its history, culture and geography.
It will do so thanks to the Ukrainians, thanks to their resistance to oppression, thanks to the military and political defeat they will inflict and are already inflicting on this miniature Stalin. Yes, thanks to Ukraine, we will be able to undertake one day to build a bridge between the European Union and a new Russia in order to ensure together the peace, stability and prosperity of our common continent, Europe, our common house.
This is what Ukrainian heroism carries in its seeds and of all the reasons to support Ukraine, this promise is the most essential. So, yes, a thousand times yes: Long live Ukraine! Slava Ukraini! Khay zhyve Ukrayina!
Bernard Guetta is a Member of the European Parliament, in the Renew Europe group.
