We must act now, otherwise it will be the end of our demo­c­ratic order

Foto: Tobias Kunz

“What peace? Ukraine and Us” — two questions that could not be more funda­mental were the focus of our inter­na­tional confer­ence, the third since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: What does the war in Ukraine mean for the West, and what goals must a future peace order fulfill?

The West is becoming increas­ingly tired of supporting Ukraine. Voices of self-proclaimed ‘pacifists’ on German streets and in state parlia­ments are shouting “peace” ever more loudly — but really meaning the de facto subju­ga­tion of Ukraine. In the meantime, people in Ukraine are heading for a harsh winter. Putin is using cold as a weapon and is relying on attrition and fear.

Peace is only possible through military strength

Volodymyr Zelensky has just presented his long-held secret “victory plan” in Wash­ington and at the EU summit and has been widely crit­i­cized for it. Key points include: Ukraine must be inte­grated into European and transat­lantic alliances, and it can only negotiate with Russia from a position of military strength. This neces­sarily means that it is allowed to attack airfields within Russia — in accor­dance with inter­na­tional law, by the way — in order to effec­tively protect its airspace.

“What we are trying to avoid is the so-called World War II Russian narrative of nuclear deter­rence. It has seeped into our psyche and nourishes the Russian narrative. We have been asleep the last two years. What is driving this strategic fog is fear. The conclu­sions we draw from history are the wrong ones. Sometimes you have to escalate in order to deesca­late. Ukraine can win. We can turn every­thing around in Ukraine the next year.“ Alina Polyakova

 

An effective protec­tion would also be the desired NATO member­ship of Ukraine. This is not only in the interest of Ukraine, but it is not only in the interest of the Balkan states and the Baltic countries. It is also in the interest of the whole of Europe and the liberal West. It is in Germany’s own best interest.

Ukraine’s security is our security

For Putin, Ukraine is just the beginning, he says that very clear and audible. But we are ignoring reality and still refuse to act deci­sively. Deci­sive­ness is now the only way to prevent a much larger war and to protect our demo­c­ratic and liberal values, the global world order and our own popu­la­tion. It is the only way to secure our own future. The good news is: If we are deter­mined now and not too hesitant, this can be achieved. Then, but only then, can Ukraine win. It is up to us. If we don’t, the war will continue. And it will become far more costly and dangerous than it already is.

Ukraine doesn’t just need us. We also need Ukraine.

„There are forces within the German popu­la­tion that want to make us believe that Ukraine is none of our business. Ukraine is also defending our European security and the inter­na­tional rules-based order. The outcome of this war will answer the question of whether it will be possible to shift borders by force in the 21st century. Putin’s war aim is not limited to Ukraine; Putin is concerned with the failure of NATO and the failure of the inter­na­tional order. He wants to replace these systems with his own sphere of influence and assert his influence by force and military strength. Peace on such a basis is not sustain­able as long as Moscow is not prepared to accept terri­to­rial integrity and sover­eignty. Tobias Lindner

Even if we don’t want to: We have long been at war with Russia

It’s already not just a war in Ukraine: Disin­for­ma­tion campaigns, murders, acts of sabotage, cyber­at­tacks and espionage... All of this is part of the hybrid war that Russia has been waging against the West for years: Against NATO and above all against Germany. Also because we — unlike the Balkan states, unlike Poland — have fallen for Putin’s narrative and are falling for his rhetoric that feeds fear and insecurity.

“The lead­er­ship in the US is either unable or unwilling to under­stand the changes. Our security, our transat­lantic security and our peace is being threat­ened by two powers: China and Russia. If we don’t stop them in Ukraine, we have to face them somewhere else. The admin­is­tra­tion in the US and Germany have enforced their weakness. They have managed to do this by playing up the Russian nuclear threat.” John E. Herbst

While German politi­cians never tire of empha­sizing what they will not do in order not to enrage Putin and prevent the spectre of nuclear war that he has cleverly conjured up from becoming reality (“No attacks on Russian territory”, “We are not at war with Russia”), Russia repeats very clearly who it is at war with: It is not Ukraine alone, it is the West, it is us.

Alliance with Western democrats

The outcome of the elections in the USA is imminent and it is hard to predict what this will mean for Europe, NATO and the alliances of Western democ­ra­cies. Ukraine’s accession processes to the European Union are in full swing, but they are compli­cated and lengthy. A swift admission of Ukraine to the EU would also be of central impor­tance. One might think that the adver­si­ties and cruel realities of war would have weakened Ukraine in its efforts to join the EU. The opposite is the case: the democ­ra­ti­za­tion processes continues to receive great support from civil society.

Global alliances of autocrats

Meanwhile, Russia has long since formed alliances with other autocrats and is pursuing a clear strategy, something we lack. Russia is attacking Ukraine with Iranian drones, it is supported by China, and South Korea’s secret service reports that it has evidence about North Korea soldiers being trained in Russia for the war in Ukraine. Not to mention the close alliances with Belarus, which shares a border with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, where Putin uses migrants as weapons.

„Where is there an outcry about North Korea inter­vening in the war? Where is there an outcry about the alliance with Iran? We have a Moscow connec­tion in Germany. We also have to come to terms with that. We must demand that Russia recog­nizes the right of its neigh­boring states to exist. We must demand the with­drawal of nuclear weapons in Kalin­ingrad. We must demand that Georgia be stabi­lized again. Peace can only exist in freedom and security.“ Roderich Kiesewetter

What is at stake here is not trivial: it is about our security, our freedom, our demo­c­ratic values. As cynical as it sounds, supporting Ukraine deci­sively now is the cheapest way to protect ourselves.

“The cheapest way to help Ukraine is to give all weapons at once. You will pay less if you pay it all at once. The worst scenario is to make a deal on the basis of giving up. Then as a conse­quence, in eight years from now, we will have another war. We have a whole gener­a­tion of people to lose. It is important to think strate­gi­cally but not on the basis of fear. Because that is what Putin expects.” Inna Sovsun

This means not sending weapons according to the principle of “too little, too late”; it would be more expedient to give Ukraine all the weapons at once and allow it not only to intercept the missiles, but also to enable it to hit the missile launcher itself. In other words: to attack airfields inside Russia.

Strength­ening the resilience of the energy infrastructure

So far, Ukraine has only been able to protect itself against Russia’s attacks to a limited extent and so the daily attacks in Ukraine are not only costing more and more lives, Russia is also delib­er­ately destroying Ukraine’s energy infra­struc­ture. Ukraine is facing a winter that threatens to be the worst since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. Moscow is using cold as a weapon. Strength­ening the resilience of Ukraine’s infra­struc­ture on the one hand and rebuilding destroyed parts on the other is therefore crucial. Protec­tion is cheaper than recon­struc­tion. However, protec­tion can only be achieved through military strength.

Abusive concept of peace

This military strength is the only conceiv­able basis for a peace worthy of the name. Where Russian troops are already occupying Ukrainian territory, what threatens the rest of the country if Russia continues to advance, already prevails: Murder, torture, kidnap­ping. This is not peace. Peace must not only be sustain­able, it must also neces­sarily include freedom and security.

But it is precisely this peace that Russia rejects. All efforts by the West to negotiate with Moscow have so far come to nothing. Regard­less of this, the demands for peace from the growing illiberal forces of BSW and AfD and the increas­ingly loud voices on German streets are not directed at Putin, but at Ukraine. They are repeating Putin’s propa­ganda and calling for a de facto capit­u­la­tion of Ukraine, which would also be disas­trous for our own security. Because Putin will continue.

„We must maintain our strength as a demo­c­ratic country. Russia is investing heavily in destroying and desta­bi­lizing democ­ra­cies. We see the poison of extremist simpli­fi­ca­tion: AfD and BSW are spreading this poison with their messages. We could do a lot, but only if we remain stable democ­ra­cies. We must not succumb to the temp­ta­tion to feed political esca­la­tion. We are faced with a choice between liberal democracy and autocracy. It’s not trivial, every­thing is at stake.“ Robin Wagener

It is the job of politi­cians to tell people the truth

Explaining this to the German popu­la­tion, dealing with respon­sible voters in an adult manner and speaking unpleasant truths would be the task of politics. Because people can be expected to handle the truth. Only those who know it can draw the right conclu­sions and make their own decisions.

„Surveys show: If politics is honest and speaks an honest language, then it is also possible to find majori­ties in politics for the right actions. We need these debates. We live in times in which the question arises as to whether our children and grand­chil­dren will still be able to live in peace, security and democracy. That is what matters today.“ Agnieszka Brugger

Instead, Putin’s fear narra­tives are being repeated, making the Kremlin’s rhetoric a far more effective weapon than any Iranian drone, however modern it may be.

“Chan­cellor Scholz should have countered the fears of the popu­la­tion and not encour­aged the aggressor by backing down. He should have clearly stated what we are defending here.” Johann David Wadephul

So far, we have been playing Putin’s game. We are playing along and anxiously assuming the role assigned to us. We urgently need to take a funda­men­tally different view of the war in Ukraine and of Russia. Moscow is waging an impe­ri­alist, colo­nialist war in the middle of the 21st century.

“Impe­ri­alism is in many ways seen as Western impe­ri­alism. So it is about colo­nizing the distant ones, that’s the narrative. The racist projec­tion is: You cannot overcome the differ­ence, because the differ­ence is racial. Instead, the Russian colo­nial­iza­tion is about the colo­nial­iza­tion of the enclosed ones. The narrative is: ‘You are not different to me, but you are the same as me. So it is about assim­i­la­tion.” Volodymyr Yermolenko

Instead of under­standing this, roman­ti­cized images of Russia still prevail in Germany. We need a change of perspec­tives, a funda­mental one. We have to recognize: The Ukraine war is our war. It is a global war that can only be won through military strength and together as an alliance of democrats. To do this, we need Ukraine just as much as it needs us. We must act. Right now. Either Europe wakes up from its deep sleep or it will be the end of European values and the order we grew up with.

“The situation is dark, but the only chance we have is by fighting united and by having no fear.” Lesia Ogryzko

“There is no other way for the West to survive than to become more active and decisive. Stop listening to Putin and start listening to the voice of reason.” Inna Sovsun

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