Selenskyj in Munich: Time for “Armed Forces of Europe”

Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj warned the European allies of possible Russian attacks. With a view to the allegations against Russia to specifically put migrants into the EU via Belarus, Selenskyj asked on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference: “What if there are not migrants next time, what if they are Russian soldiers or North Korean soldiers? ” And with a view to NATO, he asked: “How quickly will your alliance partners react and will they react at all?”

The EU neighboring states accuse Russia and its allied Belarus of specifically exposing migrants to the borders of North and Eastern Europe as part of “hybrid” attacks and being pushed across the EU boundaries. According to South Korean and western secret services, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia to help the Ukrainian offensive in the border region of Kursk.

With regard to the new US government, Selenskyj said that old relationships between Europe and the USA “end”, from now on “things will be different”. In view of the uncertainty of support from Washington, the Ukrainian President called on the uncertainty to “act in his own interest”. Europe had to “come together and act in a way that nobody can say no to Europe, command it or treat it like a weakling”.

Europe must become “independent”, Selenskyj said. The time for the common “armed forces of Europe” came.

Selenskyj’s statements were made in the middle of increasing uncertainty about the US’s attitude to the Ukraine War. US President Donald Trump had made a one-hour phone call to the Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday without coordinating with the Europeans in advance. He then said that he had agreed with Putin an “immediate” start of negotiations on the future of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian President again demanded that Kiev and Europe had to be involved in decisions about the termination of the fights in Ukraine. “No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, no decisions about Europe without Europe,” he said.

In this way, Selenskyj appealed to a closed posture of Europe against Russia. “We have to put pressure together for just peace,” Selenskyj called on the Europeans. “If it’s not Brussels, then it is Moscow. This is how geopolitics work,” he said. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace, rather he needs the war to maintain his power.

“Putin cannot offer real security guarantees, not only because he is a liar, but because Russia needs a war so that he can stay in power,” said Selenskyj. Putin does not want peace and does not prepare a dialogue. “Putin lies and he is predictable, he is weak and we have to take advantage of it.”