“In Vilnius the Nato leaders can declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine and make clear that if Russia does not initiate a tangible withdrawal from Ukraine before the end of the year, the alliance will guarantee the security, not only of Ukraine, but of Moldova and of Sweden.”
“We have all seen Putin wriggling as a fish, having swallowed the hook. Where is Prigozjin? Is he in Belarus or in Russia? Is he under arrest or a free man? Is he dead or alive? Is there at all serious Russian state?”
Lviv
The next few days are all about the ongoing East-West conflict. Russia is on the mind of everybody, physically present with its brutal armies in Ukraine, politically retreating, morally bankrupt. Even China is distancing itself, ever so carefully, from the ruling criminals in the Kremlin. Before the NATO summit in Vilnius everyone knows that the global geopolitical balance – which was always in favour of the US and Europe – has recently shifted to the further advantage of the West.
The final communique from Vilnius, expected on Wednesday, must and hopefully will reflect this reality.
The easy victory that the Russian warlord, Vladimir Putin, imagined, when he ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has not materialized. On the contrary, the Ukrainians, with their perseverance, their bravery and impressive will to survive, have revealed Russia as a giant on feet of clay: David against Goliath, quality against quantity. Western leaders believe in themselves again, inspired by the Ukrainians, who never doubted, certainly not after the infamous February 2022. Old fatalism has turned into new energy. Astonishment all over, also in Russia, in China and indeed the West.
The summit in Vilnius, one of Europe’s finest baroque capitals, will set the course of the alliance for the coming decades against a fascist Russia, whose air strikes on Ukrainian cities, reminds me of the aggrieved child’s cry: I’m here, I want to be seen, I am dangerous. Yes, nuclear-armed Russia is dangerous, but also in disarray. The war machine stutters, the economy is failing, millions of Russians, mostly young and highly educated, have left their homeland, a brain drain of historic dimensions.
Will Putin ultimately use his nuclear arms to score a hollow victory, destroying everybody and everything? Will his generals allow it? Will the inner circle of criminals around the notorious capo allow it? Nobody knows. Last week´s murderous and very precise attack on Lviv, only minutes away from Vilnius as the missiles fly, can be seen as a warning to the Nato-leaders: travel there at your own peril, you might be visited by one or two of our rockets. Another bluff? For sure. But just imagine what goes on in the heads of the muscovite madmen: a massive strike and we are masters of the world.
Lately, we have the controversy of the US – possibly – supplying – Ukraine with cluster bombs. Russia, holier than the holiest, pretends to be up in arms. Let us not forget that again and again Russia used this aggressive weapon in Syria and in Ukraine. Hypocrisy and lies, damned lies, that is Russia.
A good consideration at the summit must be that habitually the psychopath Putin threatens with red lines, which do not exist in reality. His behaviour during and after the Wagner uprising showed him, not as the strong and calm Vozdh or Führer of the Russians, promoted by the his propagandists, but wriggling as a helpless fish, having swallowed the hook. Did Prigozjin go fishing entirely on his own, or did others encourage him to wade into the murky waters of Kremlin power politics? Is he in Belarus or in Russia? Is he under arrest or a free man? Is he dead or alive? Is there at all a serious Russian state?
Since 2022, Ukraine, Europe, and the West have left the parking lot of their dreams and returned to the painful road of reality. Putin is finally seen, for what he is: not only a war criminal, mass murderer and serial liar, but the personification of Russia, supported by the vast majority of Russians. He is Russia through the centuries, living deceit and brutality.
What the response in Vilnius will be to Russia´s perennial threat to peace, global peace, we shall know on Wednesday. One can hope for a final document, spelling out clearly that Ukraine is not one more forgivable or forgetable episode like Georgia in 2008, followed in 2014 by the Crimea and the Donbas. Putin, just as his predecessor in evil, Adolf Hitler, has put himself and his country outside the community of civilized nations. The total Russian war in Europe´s east constitute a breakdown, definitely and for a very long time, of practically all relations between the West and Russia.
The West must be done with Russia, which again and again, in its tsarist, communist, and now fascist version, threatens us all. Russia, mistreated by Putin and his gangsters for almost a quarter of a century, is approaching its ruin. This process must be advanced with ever more effective weapons, cluster bombs maybe, the F16 jets for sure. The Ukrainian ongoing offensive should be brought up in gear, Russia should be brought down. n on its knees
In Vilnius the Nato leaders can declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine and state that if Russia does not initiate a tangible withdrawal from Ukraine before the end of this year, the alliance will guarantee the security, not only of Ukraine, but of Moldova and of Sweden. Such measures – of an obvious defensive nature – should not exclude the three countries from becoming members of the alliance at the earliest possible opportunity.
A big roll of the dice is needed in Vilnius. There is nothing to fear except fear itself.
Author: Per Nyholm
Danish journalist since 1960, based in Austria, columnist and foreign correspondent at the liberal Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. This text was written for Jyllands-Posten and translated and adapted for The Ukrainian Review by Stanislav Kinka.
