![]() Ukraine appeared to be a test that Europe failed to pass. In its revolutionary nature, Euromaidan was so fundamentally European that it turned out to be too European for today’s EU. As a political marketplace-or agora, in ancient Greek-reclaimed by its citizens, the Euromaidan revolution dragged Europe back to its roots of democracy, justice, anti-oligarchy, and freedom. That is the same reason why the European Union couldn’t accept the political outcomes of Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution of 2014. Eventual European Union and NATO enlargement are necessary-but only what lies on the surface. It would require, foremost from Europe, a radical transformation. Ukraine’s victory over Russia would indeed mean a genuine revolution for the West. The ongoing war shows that this catch-up revolution became a catch-up regression into complacency, mirroring the general trajectory of the West after the proclaimed “ end of history.” The only task the region was assigned was simply catching-up with the West regardless of its actual historical experience. It was famously called Die Nachholende Revolution, the “catch-up revolution,” by the de facto German state philosopher Jürgen Habermas-a term that symptomatically reveals the basic Western understanding of Eastern Europe’s role after the collapse of the communist bloc. Ukraine is now bearing an unthinkable price for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the so-called Friedliche Revolution (or Peaceful Revolution) of 1989 that was so much celebrated in Germany. ![]() The first is the West’s profound non-revolutionism. There are three central reasons for that fear. In a basic sense, the West has always been afraid of a Ukrainian victory. The West’s political discourse, rationalized in the ivory tower language of non-escalation and nonprovocation, is still basically about how best to ensure that exposure to the continued risk of military aggression and death is restricted to Ukrainians. So far, the West has been having a good war in Ukraine-above all, because its present course still allows the West to behave as if the war is not its own. (If this isn’t how they felt, then they wouldn’t have evacuated their embassies in Kyiv.) The biggest blow to democracy on a global scale was not the war itself but the fact that-despite all “never again” claims-European and Western countries in general agreed and accepted beforehand that another European nation might be deprived of its sovereignty, freedom, and independent institutions, and it might find itself militarily occupied. This reflected a general attitude: The West at the time thought it would be easier if Ukraine simply surrendered.Īn uncomfortable truth about Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine, so plainly obvious that it’s usually overlooked, is that it became possible not only because it was conceived and carried out by the aggressor but also because it was allowed by bystanders. It became clear he was preparing to discuss the future of a Russian-occupied Ukraine with the puppet government that would be installed by the Kremlin. As Melnyk later recounted, Lindner didn’t simply decline to supply Ukraine with weapons or disconnect Russia from the SWIFT payment system, as Ukraine had a “ few hours left” of its sovereignty. On the first day of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner met with then-Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |