05 Oct, 2024

Securing Europe: Liberals discuss Ukraine’s road to victory

European liberals exchanged ideas on solutions to break the deadlock and ensure Ukraine wins Putin’s war of aggression almost 1,000 days after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Four leaders took part in a high-level political debate staged on the second day of the ALDE Party Congress, moderated by Friedrich Naumann Foundation chair Professor Karl-Heinz Paqué.

Vadym Halaichuk MP, Deputy Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s EU Integration in the Verkhovna Rada, kicked off the discussion by sharing the perspective from the field.

“Today’s strategy is that Ukraine must not lose and Russia must not win. But putting it in practical solution on the field is quite difficult. Russians have used our indecisiveness in strategy and providing assistance to Ukraine to advance towards their goal,” said Halaichuk.

“Russia’s ability to produce weapons and ammunition much faster and in much bigger quantities that we do is demoralising. All these questions have formed a pretty sad wound in Ukrainian society. Putin started this war to prevent Ukraine from European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and unless we provide a very clear answer this will continue.”

Kajsa Ollongren, former Minister of Defence of the Netherlands, praised the immediate common response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“We immediately saw Ukraine was successful in defending itself and Russia miscalculated the whole invasion. What needs to be done now is to change the dynamics of this war, for example the incursion in Kursk. Our task is to enable Ukraine to do that more and to show the Kremlin that we will remain by Ukraine and increase our provision of ammunition,” she said.

Sweden’s Minister of Education and Liberalerna leader Johan Pehrson said Sweden remains steadfast in the support of Ukraine after the country’s accession to NATO earlier this year.

“We have to prepare for a struggle with Russia for many years, even though we hope that Ukraine will win. We have to be able to do more than talk about our freedom and values, we have to be prepared to pay for freedom and defend it, especially the Ukrainian one,” he said.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence, concluded that European security is synonymous with common freedom.

“If we don’t do anything, then this Europe, our liberal Europe, will be totally different in a few years. So it’s not easy to be a liberal in these times: we have to explain to people that without security, there is no discussion about education, culture or climate change. Ukraine has reasons to be tired but they are not, and so it’s a reason for us to change something in the next years,” she said.

You can watch a recording of the opening session below or on our YouTube channel.

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