For the first time since February 2022, critics of the current EU and NATO policies towards Ukraine and Russia have held an international conference on the very premises of the European Parliament, in Brussels, the capital of both the EU and NATO, on March 20, focused on “confidence-building measures in the face of acute polarization in Europe”. It has led to the adoption of an appeal to stop the war and the arming of Ukraine. You can read the full text here.
The conference was attended by seven members of the European Parliament (from the Left and the Group of Independent), one former MEP (from the Greens – European Freedom Alliance Group), as well as intellectuals and journalists from several European countries. While the participants hold different political viewpoints, they all share a deep empathy for the victims of this war. They are also conscious of the enormous dangers the continuation of the Ukrainian conflict and of the new Cold War associated with it is bringing for the peoples of Ukraine and Russia, for the rest of Europe and for the whole world.
Participants in the conference also share another point. They understand that the present western policy towards Ukraine and Russia – supported enthusiastically by the European Parliament and the Commission – and in particular the arming of Kyiv with more and more sophisticated weapons cannot lead to Ukraine’s victory over Russia.
Where it can lead – and it is already leading in reality – is the further destruction of the Ukrainian people and of their country, while bringing all humanity closer to a nuclear WWIII and/or a climatic Holocaust and/or social and economic disasters (for only one but very cruel recent example of the multiple repercussions of sanctions in Africa see here).
We are in a situation of undeclared war between NATO and Russia and such a war carries an intrinsic and serious risk of nuclear conflagration, even if no side has any a priori intention of resorting to nuclear arms. And nuclear arms are not the only means of mass destruction. We have also chemical and biological arms, cyberweapons and space weapons. If we don’t stop the present conflict, if a compromise cannot be found, then the very dynamics of the conflict will most probably lead to generalisation by embracing new regions and using all available technologies.
Before the Ukrainian crisis erupts, most governments were paying lip service to the need of addressing the climatic and other very serious ecological threats to the very survival of humanity. For one year now, they have been taking measures which accelerate the climatic crisis, like the replacement of Russian gas by US LNG, which is emitting four times more greenhouse gases, new explorations for oil and gas (like recently in Alaska) or resorting to nuclear energy, which bears with it enormous security dangers, as the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters proved amply. Not to speak of the ecological disaster in Ukraine itself – but with international repercussions – about which nobody seems to care.
While Ukrainians and Russians are mourning their dead, US energy and arms industries are celebrating their biggest profits in history and Europe becomes a vassal of the United States.
As for the economic results of NATO’s war against Russia, every European citizen is now feeling the economic and social pain as a result of the sanctions, supposedly intended to bring down Russian economy, but doing more harm to Europe and large parts of the South of the planet, where the majority of humanity is living.
For all these reasons and for many others, the participants expressed during the conference their strong belief that we have to push for an immediate ceasefire and a start of negotiations, instead of supporting the continuation of the conflict by sending more and more arms to Ukraine, or by dismissing any idea of a ceasefire, as Washington did again recently, or by staging new provocations, like the arrest warrant against the Russian President, directed as the NordStream against Europe, in order to deter its leaders from holding any peace negotiations with Russia, or by imposing more and more sanctions to Russia, or by pushing Zelensky to order a “counterattack” for which he has not the means and which will prove to be just another carnage of young Ukrainians and Russians, reminiscent of the Verdun massacre in WWI. The only reason Washington, London and other capitals are pushing for this counteroffensive (and/or the opening of a “second front” in Moldova and/or Georgia), is their wish to justify their policy of military assistance to Ukraine with more and more offensive arms.
It is the highest form of cynicism to claim such policies are meant to help Ukraine or Ukrainians. They destroy both Ukraine and Ukrainians.
The only way to help Ukrainians and Ukraine is to stop the conflict and return to the negotiating table. The only way to stop the descent of the world into chaos is to lift sanctions and return to a system of international cooperation, more necessary than ever if we want to address the enormous threats that humanity is facing, unprecedented in human history
There is no sense in trying to dominate the world if the world will cease to exist!
Previously published on defenddemocracy.press here.