Faced with the potential disengagement of the United States from European defence and Russia's drastic conditions for a truth, let alone peace with Ukraine, the European Union is under pressure.
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00:00Russia has become, as I speak to you, a threat to France and Europe for the years to come.
00:06We must continue to help the Ukrainians resist,
00:10until they can negotiate with Russia a solid peace for themselves and for all of us.
00:15After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated
00:20in Europe's economic and security architecture.
00:24Others hoped that we could rely indefinitely on America's full protection.
00:29The time of illusions is over now.
00:31We need a surge in European defense, and we need it now.
00:36Faced with American disengagement in defense of Europe
00:40and Moscow's demands for peace with Ukraine,
00:43the European Union is at the forefront.
00:45Recovering its defense delay and strengthening military support for Ukraine
00:50are now priorities for the European executive.
00:55Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,
00:59the European Union has provided substantial financial,
01:02humanitarian and military support to Ukraine.
01:05It is more than half of the international aid to the country.
01:08The military aid of the Union to Ukraine amounts to 49.3 billion euros.
01:13Member countries, with the exception of Hungary,
01:15want to continue to provide it with weapons and ammunition.
01:18Some states, such as France or the United Kingdom,
01:22consider sending troops to Ukraine after a possible peace agreement,
01:25which does not make consensus.
01:28The bloc, which has no common army,
01:30however, wants to give itself the means to ensure its own defense,
01:33so far guaranteed by NATO.
01:3523 of the 32 states of the Atlantic Alliance are members of the European Union.
01:40However, the US military spending represents
01:43two-thirds of the total spending of other NATO countries for defense.
01:47Faced with the threat of American disengagement,
01:50the 27 countries of the Union approved the Rearm Europe plan last March.
01:54It must mobilize 800 billion euros for European defense by 2030.
02:04European defense ambitions will take time to materialize,
02:08and by then, many experts say,
02:10Ukraine must be helped to defend itself against Russia
02:13to ensure the security of Europe.
02:15But it is also a certainty for the Ukrainian military
02:19that I met last February in the east of Ukraine,
02:22where the fighting continues to rage.
02:25We are not only fighting for the freedom of Ukraine,
02:28we are fighting for the security of the whole of Europe.
02:31A few weeks before the talks on a potential truce,
02:34this officer exhorted the European leaders to distrust.
02:38If Europe thinks that any moment of freezing the conflict,
02:42solving the territorial issue in Ukraine,
02:45will reduce the danger of a Russian invasion of France,
02:49it should not be believed.
02:54This conflict is not local, it is more global.
02:57Therefore, it is necessary to consider that this war concerns everyone.
03:01That's how it is.
03:03The opinion shared by Maxim,
03:05an officer of civil-military cooperation in the Ukrainian army.
03:09Any concession to Russia, he says,
03:13especially in territorial matters,
03:16will only make the appetite of Moscow.
03:19France did not want to give Germany some territories for peace.
03:23England also does not want to give its islands to Argentina for peace.
03:27Why Ukraine, which has been a sovereign state since 1991,
03:31and which has people who live there and want to return,
03:35should give something to them?
03:38There will always be desires.
03:41They will never end.
03:44And he will say every time,
03:47today Donbass, Lugansk, Crimea,
03:50tomorrow Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, then Dnipro,
03:53and so on.
03:56We will not remain just a country thanks to such desires.
03:59Therefore, I believe that there can be no steps,
04:02because if you act once, you will have to act again.
04:06Vladimir Putin's ambitions,
04:09emphasizes the officer,
04:12as well as the number of European leaders,
04:15will not be limited to Ukraine.
04:18I think that if it was possible to say something in Brussels,
04:21then it would be possible to show them
04:24what the state does today,
04:27which says that it frees us from denazification, militarization,
04:30and everything else.
04:33There is a video, a photo,
04:36where they just kill people, shoot and cut off their heads.
04:39What else can we agree on and talk about?
04:42Well, if they want, they will see it for themselves.
04:45Because they will go.
04:48They are pumping their people with such information
04:51that their children will not go to Berlin.
04:54Today someone from Europe is willing to see
04:57this hero in Berlin who kills everything he sees.
05:04Excluded and to be discussed by Washington and Moscow,
05:07can the European Union really weigh
05:10on the outcome of the war in Ukraine?
05:13I interviewed Steven Evert,
05:16director of the Institute of Security Studies of the European Union.
05:34I believe that these negotiations are going to take very long
05:37and are unlikely to resolve quickly
05:40into some sort of sustainable peace agreement.
05:43The risk is that there is some sort of bilateral agreement
05:46between the United States and Russia
05:49on conditions that are unacceptable to us
05:52when it comes to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,
05:55or perhaps the freedom of Ukraine to choose its own alliances,
05:58or perhaps limitations
06:01on Ukraine's armed forces
06:04to resist future aggression.
06:07Putin still wants the subjugation
06:10of Ukraine.
06:13So we have to continue to support Ukraine
06:16to resist this war as long as possible.
06:19And that Ukraine is also able to say no
06:22to a deal that is unacceptable to them
06:25and is unacceptable to us.
06:28What more can the European Union do?
06:31Is the idea of sending troops on the ground
06:34a realistic option?
06:37I will mention two things that Europe can do and should do right now.
06:40As you know, European countries and other countries
06:43are training Ukrainian forces
06:46but outside of Ukraine.
06:49And it will be much more efficient if such training
06:52took place inside Ukraine.
06:55What Europeans can do right now is help Ukraine
06:58not just with ammunition but also with air defence.
07:01So there is a greater degree of capacity to
07:04withstand these relentless bombardments by Russia
07:07day in, day out.
07:10Finally, on this idea of forces and boots on the ground,
07:13let's not call it a peacekeeping force.
07:16This is not like countries in other parts of the world
07:19that went to the United Nations and then we had blue helmets
07:22and there were European troops and maybe there were troops
07:25also from other Asian countries.
07:28No, come on. We are not neutral also in this fight.
07:31We are on the side of Ukraine.
07:34The idea that we are sort of peacekeepers
07:37in the middle between Russia and Ukraine
07:40is not the way to think about it.
07:43The way to think about it is can we shore up the capacity of Ukraine
07:46to defend itself. We should not call it peacekeeping
07:50This is the end of this edition of European Stories.
07:53Thank you for following us.