Un voting highly symbolic to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Monday, February 24, the day of the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, illustrated the abyss in which this war plunged international law and the 'Order established after the Second World War.
A draft resolution submitted by the United States, which was limited to calling for a “Quick end” of “Russian-Ukraine conflict” and y Dressing into the loss of human lives, without the slightest conviction or even mention of the aggressor, was adopted with the voices of Russia and China but without those of Europeans, who abstained. Earlier in the day, another draft resolution, subject to the general assembly by Ukraine and its European allies, and condemning the Russian aggression, had been largely adopted, but without the votes of the United States and the Russia who had voted against, together. China had abstained.
It is therefore in a completely upset diplomatic environment that Ukraine seeks to find peace after three years of a devastating war and eleven years of aggression by Russia, since the annexation of Crimea by Moscow and the intervention of Russian forces in Donbass in 2014. The violation of the borders of Ukraine and the invasion of this independent country by a power such as Russia, permanent member of the Security Council, made shatter international law. Three years later, it was the decision of the United States, today led by President Donald Trump, to align himself with Russia to precipitate a ceasefire in Ukraine which overturns the geopolitical chessboard.
It is the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state that is played out today. The country has certainly resisted Russian aggression heroically, under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky and with the help of its Western allies. Despite their broad digital superiority, the Russian forces, assisted since this winter of North Korean troops, have failed to achieve their objective, that of controlling Ukraine. Exhausted, short of human reinforcements, the Ukrainian army, which has shown remarkable technological inventiveness, still manages to avoid a collapse of the front.
Europeans come out of denial
Ukraine holds. But at what price. Hundreds of thousands of deaths, soldiers and civilians. Destroyed whole cities. Constantly bombed energy infrastructure. Millions of displaced people, an exodus of refugees to Europe which suggests a serious demographic crisis for the country when peace has returned. And a fifth of the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.
This terrible assessment is also a challenge for Europe, forced to consider helping kyiv alone facing a hostile Russia, whose Trump administration seems ready to marry the positions. The shock is tough, but Europeans, guilty of lightness for having rested too long on American power, finally emerge from denial. President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are right to make the trip to Washington to try to bring President Trump back to reason, even if hope is thin. If they do not succeed, the most lucid Europeans will have no choice but to put themselves in battle order. Abandoning kyiv to Russia would cost them even more than supporting it today. Ukraine plays its survival, Europe its future.
Source: Lemonde