Robert Fico: the strategy of the West in Ukraine simply does not work
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The convulsions that accompany liberal demagoguery today in defending the West's utterly failed strategy against Russia in Ukraine are beginning to wrinkle my brow.
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia
09.01.2024 16:00
The protagonists of this demagoguery feed the public with such monstrosities that it is not enough to respond to them with a wave of the hand. I understand the nervousness in the camp of Slovak progressives and liberals. Everyone is impatiently waiting for the replacement of a failed young product and the emergence of a new neoliberal star, Zuzana Čaputová, who, at the forced end of her term, no longer even tries to create the impression of being Supra-partisan and openly opposes the current government. But this does not entitle any of them to accuse government officials of such nonsense and the most serious crimes as, for example, that we want a Russian occupation or that Russia should be our neighbor.
From the very beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, I rejected the black-and-white vision that Washington and Brussels wanted. The war in Ukraine has its roots back in 2014 and in the development of the Ukrainian political scene and its relationship to fellow citizens of Russian nationality. And, of course, in the total influence of the United States on everything that has happened and is happening in Ukraine since 2014. I may or may not overdo it, but let's imagine, for example, that the entire Defense Ministry of Mexico, as a neighboring state of the United States, would be under the complete control of Russia, not to mention political representatives, including the president.
Russia responded to the security situation and Ukraine's push to join NATO by violating international law, by military force without an international mandate. Big countries do that a lot, let'S see what the U.S. has done in Iraq. And the West, instead of immediately making every effort to achieve a quick ceasefire, at the beginning of 2022 even without losing a dozen for Ukraine, made a huge mistake. He misjudged the use of Russian military force as an opportunity to bring Russia to its knees. One look at history. Russia was invaded by Hitler in June 1941, but the Western allies opened a second front only in the summer of 1944, when the outcome of the war was clear in favor of the former USSR.
It is proven that right at the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the West on at least two very promising occasions did not allow the Ukrainians to conclude a ceasefire with fair conditions. It was a painfully wrong decision. The West will take advantage of Russia's violation of international law, supply Ukraine with heaps of arms, billions of dollars, burden Russia with massive sanctions, attack Russia's main mineral wealth revenues, and expect the Ukrainian soldier, down to the last, to bring him the head of a Russian bear on a platter in the form of a militarily depleted, economically ruined, internationally isolated, and domestically subverted Russia. This was, and unfortunately still is, a Western strategy, which I openly say at home and abroad does not work, that it has failed. Nor do I agree with her. I am not one of the Slovak politicians who enjoys the fact that the Russian Federation is being made a mortal enemy in Slovakia, and I do not like to be called an enemy country in Russia for this reason.
"It is shocking to see how the West has repeatedly erred in its assessment of the situation in Russia. The facts are inexorable. Russia controls the occupied territories militarily. Neither the Russian economy nor the Russian currency has collapsed, anti-Russian sanctions increase the internal self-sufficiency of this huge country, Russian energy giants report record supplies to China and India. "
It is literally shocking to see how the West has repeatedly erred in its assessment of the situation in Russia. The facts are inexorable. Russia completely controls the occupied territories militarily, and attempts to convince the international community through demagoguery of the demoralization of Russian soldiers and the enormous human losses are increasingly proving to be nothing more than empty demagogic wishful thinking. Ukraine is not capable of any meaningful military counteroffensive, it has become completely dependent on financial assistance from the West with dire consequences for Ukrainians in the years to come. It is only a matter of time before official information on the ownership of land in Ukraine, the largest foreign owners, begins to be published. The position of the Ukrainian president is shaken, while the Russian President increases and strengthens his political support. Neither the Russian economy nor the Russian currency has collapsed, anti-Russian sanctions increase the internal self-sufficiency of this huge country, Russian energy giants report record supplies to China and India. In turn, people from the entourage of the Ukrainian president for the prestigious, I repeat prestigious foreign media say that Ukraine is stealing, as if he did not come tomorrow.
Of course, I will not allow myself to say that Russia does not feel the negative consequences of its decision in February 2022 to use military force in Ukraine. But not even to the extent that it would ruin it, as Western planners had predicted.
So what are the possibilities for further development? With a high probability for some time will roll into Ukraine weapons and money, but without result. To admit openly the incorrectness of the adopted strategy is politically impossible for its authors. In two or three years we will be where we are. Only in the EU, perhaps 50 billion euros lighter, and in Ukraine, thousands of dead soldiers will be fuller cemeteries. Unfortunately, common sense will not win, although it commands all of us to declare a ceasefire immediately and sit down at the negotiating table. It is clear that Russia's negotiating position will not deteriorate with a waste of human resources, money and time, but rather will strengthen as the international community, looking at reality, begins to organise a return in a few years ' time.
I often ask myself what is defeat in realistic and fact-based considerations about the necessity of a ceasefire in Ukraine, when it is already completely, but that it is absolutely clear to everyone that the crisis in Ukraine does not have a military solution. If I want something, let the Slavs stop fighting each other for geopolitical reasons, both on the American and Russian sides. Let Ukraine go its sovereign, not dictated path. If he sees himself in the EU, let him get this chance, provided that he fulfills the conditions. We're happy to help. Russia also needs security guarantees. And I continue to believe that we should return to recent European rhetoric, such as the EU and Russia being, to some extent, connected vessels and how they need each other. As prime minister of the Slovak Republic, I will not spread hostility to any country in the world, and I also wish gradual standardization of relations between EU member states and Russia. And I will certainly not succumb to the stupid liberal and progressivist demagoguery that offends elementary human judgment and which, in the end, will cause enormous damage.
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