Come on, Volodymyr, who do you think you are? Learn to say thank you!
I’m paraphrasing, but it’s not a bad message that British Defense Minister Ben Wallace sent to the President of Ukraine at the NATO summit in Lithuania this week.
Neither he nor his American counterparts liked that Volodymyr Zelensky preceded his arrival in Vilnius with a not very diplomatic tweet. “It seems that there is no will to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make it a member of the Alliance”, wrote the Ukrainian leader, describing as “absurd” the lack clear guidelines to prepare for his country’s entry into the transatlantic defense organisation.
Volodymyr Zelensky believes that NATO members have thus kept a way out allowing them to sacrifice Ukraine’s accession to the military alliance during a peace negotiation with Russia. And, this, without the knowledge of the principal concerned.
Okay, maybe that angry tweet wasn’t the best way to start the discussions at the Summit where Ukraine was the main guest, but when you’re the president of a country at war for more than 500 days, it It’s kind of understandable to have a short fuse. Especially when the Russian aggressor keeps repeating that the invasion is the result of NATO negotiations in its area of influence. Let NATO try to destroy Russia by supplying weapons to Kyiv.
In other words, Ukraine is irretrievably linked to NATO, but without pulling any strings. It is above all that which is absurd.
In this arrangement, Ukraine is the eternal guest who is forced to beg for this and that. Weapons please, practice dickthe reconstruction of a dam or a hydroelectric plant lütfen. financial assistance please, please.
And all this, while waging a war against the second nuclear power in the world, with what was believed to be the second army on the planet.
The war – and especially the last few weeks – has taught us that the Russian army is a failed organization, plagued by dissension, but the fact remains that it continues to sow death and desolation every day since February 24, 2022 in Ukraine.
As of June 18, the United Nations estimated the civilian casualties of the conflict at 25,000, including 9,000 dead and 14,000 injured. More than 6 million Ukrainians are still refugees outside the country.
Although the two armies refuse to publicly state the number of dead in their ranks, we learned this week, thanks to an analysis by two independent Russian media and a German research institute, that the Russian army has lost at least 55,000 troops. One can imagine that the Ukrainian losses are of the same order.
And what about the destruction of Ukraine? In March, before the explosion of the Nova Kakhovka dam which caused immense flooding, the World Bank estimated the cost of rebuilding the country at 411 billion. Ukraine’s economy continues to bleed. In 2022, it contracted by 30%.
And all that because Vladimir Putin can’t stomach his neighbor fleeing from the bosom of Russia to take refuge under the umbrella of NATO.
At the Vilnius summit, British minister Wallace says he received a list of armaments Ukraine needs when he set foot there last year after spending 11 hours on the road . “I told them I’m not Amazon! “, did he declare.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States deserved “a little gratitude” before listing all the “gifts” the United States sent to Ukraine: ammunition, air defense, infantry, combat vehicles, equipment for demining, lark.
All this deserves a lot of big thanks, right?
Volodymyr Zelensky quickly understood the message and spent the two days of the international meeting saying thank you to everyone, in all languages and repeatedly.
Note, it shouldn’t have been too difficult. He has practice in this area. If you look at his Twitter feed and his Instagram account, he spends most of his life thanking this president or that minister for a favor granted.
He seems to understand very well that politicians from democracies must be accountable to their nationals for all assistance directed to Ukraine.
But instead of giving the impression that they are doing charity by sending arms and money to the former Soviet Republic, these same politicians should instead be giving Caesar his due.
If the West so openly supports Ukraine and if the G7 gave it “security guarantees” at the end of the Vilnius meeting, it is not for its good eyes.
It’s that the country of 40 million inhabitants is waging a war which is also theirs, but in which they do not want to take part directly, for fear of awakening the nuclear threat, of starting the third world war. Either.
It is then to the Ukrainians that falls the heavy burden of repelling an army deployed in their country, at the gates of the NATO fortress.
In this arrangement, it is not Volodymyr Zelensky who should learn to spread all his gratitude, rather it is up to the leaders of the military alliance to learn to pronounce perfectly: щиро дякую. Thank you very much, in Ukrainian.