“The Russian danger is truly existential for Europe,” says a specialist in international and security issues

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the American Congress on Tuesday to convince parliamentarians to grant him a new aid package for his country.

“The Russian danger is truly existential for Europe”estimates Nicolas Tenzer, a professor at Sciences-Po, specialist in international and security issues, invited this Tuesday by franceinfo, while Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, is visiting Washington on Tuesday December 12 to try to convince Republican parliamentarians to support him. grant new funds to continue the war, after a blockage in Congress last week.

franceinfo: What is the point for Volodymyr Zelensky in obtaining this aid? Do they risk lacking the equipment to face Russia?

Nicolas Tenzer: It’s already missing! We know very well that the Ukrainians are short of ammunition because production on the European and American sides has not kept up. Very concretely, this lack of ammunition results in additional victims. A few weeks ago, we saw Ukrainian soldiers forced to surrender and who were also shot down in cold blood by the Russians. But they surrendered first because they had no ammunition and not having ammunition means not being able to carry out the offensive.

Some say the Ukrainians did not choose the right strategy during their counter-offensive. But that’s not it: the counter-offensive could have succeeded if the Ukrainians had had more long-range missiles, fighter planes, more time, etc. There is not a single allied country that would fight against an enemy in the conditions in which the Ukrainians are fighting. You have to know that.

Is Russia experiencing the same problem?

Russia is suffering from sanctions. But we also know that these sanctions are largely circumvented: it benefits in particular from Iranian drones. It has in a certain way moved to the war economy, because thanks to the circumvention of sanctions it can have a certain number of components for its weapons.

“In any case, Vladimir Putin does not shy away from any sacrifice, even human. He can send his men to the slaughterhouse for a long time, but he can also impoverish his country even more because he is truly determined to fight this war against Ukraine until the end.”

Nicolas Tenzer, teacher at Sciences-Po

at franceinfo

And Westerners should know that. We are still very, very far from this offensive, even though the Russian danger is truly existential for Europe.

And there is this new focus on the Middle East, to the detriment of the war in Ukraine. Do you think this is a bad sign?

Yes, because quite simply, the real decisive war for Europe and beyond, including the Middle East, is the war against Russia. Russia is allied with the worst regimes in the Middle East, is allied with Hamas, with Iran, with Assad’s Syria, which is the most criminal regime of the 21st century… So I believe that it is that’s the decisive war. Because afterwards, that means that all the other dictatorships, Iran, North Korea and China also on Taiwan, will feel strengthened, if we, Europeans and Americans, do not show unfailing determination, not only in supporting Ukraine, but truly in wanting Ukraine to win and Russia to lose decisively.