Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned yesterday about the “wrong turns” in history “when the enemy manages to undermine international support and solidarity. When the civilized world begins to seek compromises with terrorists and make concessions to tyrants.” The message was part of his speech on the Day of Dignity and Freedom of Ukraine and was obviously directed at the Western allies at a time when they seem to falter at the prospect of an endless war and considerations are arising about a hypothetical final pact with Vladimir Putin. “We all lose,” Zelensky asserted. Ukraine. Europe. The whole world".
The Day of Dignity and Freedom yesterday celebrated 19 years of the Orange Revolution and ten years of the revolution of dignity, that is, of the first Maidan, which gave impetus to the pro-European forces in Ukraine, and the second, the so-called Euromaidan , which began on November 21, 2013, when protests began when President Viktor Yanukovych reversed the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU to opt for economic integration with Russia. Yanukovych, discredited even before his electoral base in the east and south of the country and in the eyes of Putin himself, was dismissed by Parliament and ended up fleeing to Moscow. For the Kremlin, that was a coup d'état and the pretext to recover Crimea. The war in Donbass would begin almost immediately, as a result of a state of considerable chaos.
However, the Euromaidan is a founding event in today's Ukraine, with its martyrology, the so-called Heavenly Hundred, victims of violence on February 20, 2014, who are honored in the memorial of the tiny church of Saint Michael the Archangel, near the Parliament, in Kyiv. Zelensky and his wife went there yesterday with the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu. And, on his own and on an officially unannounced visit, the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius. The head of the Pentagon, by the way, was in Kyiv the day before. Lloyd Austin thus avoided the commemoration of the Euromaidan, which Moscow interprets as a plot hatched by the United States.
Austin reiterated promises of military support, but more important were those of Germany, which from its hesitant position after the Russian invasion – offering helmets for soldiers and little else – has become the second largest supplier of weapons. Boris Pistorius promised “supplementary” support worth 1.3 billion euros, in line with what Chancellor Scholz announced that in 2024 Berlin would double its military aid from four to eight billion. This includes, as far as is known, four Iris-T anti-aircraft defense systems (of eight committed, three have been delivered), anti-tank mines and 20,000 155 mm ammunition, the most used. The Taurus missiles desired by the Ukrainians remain banned.
Equally important was the visit yesterday of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. Fifteen days ago, the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, already went to Kyiv. By mid-December, the EU must decide at a summit on the start of accession negotiations for Ukraine (and Moldova), a decision that must be accompanied by an economic package.
Charles Michel said yesterday that Ukraine has made “progress.” He did not specify which ones, but once again Kyiv has been timely in announcing new successes in the fight against corruption. The last ones, against the two people in charge of the Special Communications Service, or computer counterespionage, for making money by acquiring equipment at an extra cost. “We are doing everything we can and we will continue to do so,” Zelensky said yesterday, stating that in December he wants “results.”
It will be a “difficult” summit, Charles Michel said, or rather reiterated. The discrepancies between the Twenty-Seven remain. Yesterday, the Parliament of Slovakia confirmed the new government of Robert Fico, close to the postulates of the Hungarian Viktor Orbán and who has promised to suspend military aid to Ukraine, which is nothing less than the country next door.
