‘Europe and the world need Ukraine to prevail,’ Borrell and Kuleba say in joint article

“We cannot and will not allow aggression to be rewarded in the twenty-first century; instead, we will mobilise against it,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba say in an article, published on the eve of two years of Russian full-scale war against Ukraine.

They remind that for two years, Europe has been living “with the grim reality of the continent’s largest war of aggression since World War II, and with widespread, horrifying atrocities”. 

“Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine does not exist as a nation and that Ukrainian identity is artificial. The war is solely about annihilating an independent country, conquering land, and re-establishing dominance over a people that decided to be masters of their own destiny. Russia’s imperial ambition is doubtless familiar to many nations around the world that were previously subject to colonial rule and oppression,” say Kuleba and Borrell.

They also added that a ten-point peace formula, proposed by Ukraine and fully supported by the EU, is “the only serious peace proposal on the table”, and called on all countries committed to peace to join Ukraine and Brussels in putting it into action. Ukraine is currently organising a Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, and the EU is actively supporting this process. 

The only way to achieve a just peace is to double support for Ukraine, says the article. “The EU has done exactly that in recent months, and it is set to increase assistance even further in 2024,” say the authors.

“Our common goal is to ensure that Ukraine can turn the tide of the war in its favour so that a just peace can be reached as soon as possible. The world’s support is crucial for achieving this result. It is in everyone’s interest that international law be upheld, and that cooperation is the highest priority. There must not be a return to the dark past of military aggression, imperialism, and colonialism – neither in Europe nor in any other region,” conclude Borrell and Kuleba.

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