“If there were to be a defeat for Ukraine, there would be no more Ukraine”, affirmed Monday, October 10 on francefo the MEP Renew Nathalie Loiseau, president of the Security and Defense sub-committee, after the Russian bombardments which hit kyiv and other cities in Ukraine. For the chosen one, the situation “justifies“that the European Union”amplified“his support for Ukraine.
franceinfo: What more can the European Union do after Monday’s bombings in Ukraine?
Nathalie Loiseau : The Europeans have never been responsible for the slightest escalation. But Vladimir Putin does not hesitate to attack civilians without any military gain for the Russian army. Because this rain of missiles and bombs today does nothing for the situation of the Russian army on the front. For our part, we are going to continue to support Ukraine, to continue to send it arms, if possible, quickly and if possible arms which enable it to defend itself in good conditions. We talk about anti-aircraft systems, we talk about tanks, because Ukraine knows how to make good use of them and obviously the time for negotiation has not come. We have a Russian president who is more in the process of negotiating with his ultras within the Russian power itself to try to give them pledges, and who is not at all in a logic of de-escalation.
Are these strikes a show of Russian strength or an admission of weakness?
This is akin to war crimes, since these are strikes against civilians, on targets that are mostly targets that make no sense. He hit electrical infrastructure to try to weaken Ukraine. But it hit public gardens in kyiv or elsewhere. So his goal is to terrorize. This is terrorist behavior. I think he is wrong. And just as we see today a divided Russian power, which sometimes questions itself very openly, including on official Russian television, so much we see an extraordinarily resistant Ukrainian population, which is very united behind Volodymyr Zelensky, whom no one questions leadership issue. So from the political point of view, it is not an admission of force. And from the military point of view, this does not contribute anything to the situation on the various fronts, whether in the East or in the South.
Do you fear a profound change in the nature of war as Emmanuel Macron mentioned?
What we see is something that hadn’t happened since June. This recourse to indiscriminate strikes with precision missiles which are not those which are used on the front, which are also expensive missiles which one cannot imagine that Russia has considerably. In any case, it costs him a lot. And we know that the Russian economy is weakened by the sanctions. But what we also see is Belarus which, dragging its feet without much enthusiasm, agrees to pretend that it is being drawn into the war alongside Vladimir Putin. We will see the reality on the ground. If there were to be a front from Belarus, it would be one more front for the Ukrainian army and that would obviously be an additional difficulty. In any case, this justifies accelerating and increasing our support for Ukraine. There is no doubt about it. Do we want to coexist in Europe with a Russia which so despises the sovereignty of its neighbours, which so despises the laws of war, which commits war crimes? I believe the answer is no.
Is a new set of sanctions possible?
It is obviously possible. Each time, the sanctions are calibrated, are proportionate. The goal is not to punish for the sake of punishing. The goal is to change Russia’s behavior and to make the Russian people understand that they have a lot more to lose and nothing to gain by continuing this war. It is clear that the partial mobilization decreed by Vladimir Putin, even though he claims that there is no war but just a special operation, has scared away many young Russians. Hundreds of thousands have left Russia in recent days. It is clear that there are questions being expressed, even publicly, in Russia. It is important that this message be clear to the Russian people. There is a way for this war to end and the Russian troops to withdraw. If there is a defeat for Russia, there is simply no more war. If there were to be a defeat for Ukraine, there would be no more Ukraine.