The Dimensions of the Ukraine War and Their Significance for Europe

The Kremlin is waging a barbaric war in Ukraine, the implications and consequences of which extend far beyond the bilateral level. Regardless of the outcome of the war, Europe has changed completely. By Alfred Praus.

The Bilateral Perspective

Notwithstanding the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia also guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty and in return for which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, Putin never actually regarded Ukraine as an independent nation. Thus, in a distortion of history, he consistently referred to Ukraine as part of Russia. Consequently, the ‘repatriation’ of the Donbas and Crimea in 2014 was no real surprise. However, Putin made a grave error here by equating the use of the Russian language with pro-Russian sentiment. As a result, Ukrainian patriotism and nationalism solidified, coupled with an increased leaning towards the EU.

Putin was unwilling to accept this and launched a brutal attack on Ukraine in February. In light of the unexpected, courageous, and successful resistance of the Ukrainians, the intention of occupation mutated into a war of annihilation with the aim of erasing Ukraine as a nation—economically, socially, and culturally. This explains the targeted destruction of infrastructure, the annihilation of entire regions and cities, the mass murder of civilians, the deportation of what is now more than a million Ukrainians, including tens of thousands of children, and the systematic destruction of schools, hospitals, churches, theatres, and museums, as well as the theft of Ukrainian cultural assets.

The Ukrainians are fighting for their homeland, for freedom, self-determination, sovereignty, and democracy.

The Geopolitical Perspective

However, the Ukrainians are also defending Europe: Putin, Medvedev, and other high-ranking politicians lament the collapse of the Soviet Union as a geopolitical catastrophe of the century and demand its restoration or even ‘an empire from Lisbon to Vladivostok’. Many recognised experts believe that if Putin cannot be stopped militarily in Ukraine, he will expand his imperialist ambitions.

Putin prepared all of this well: for many years, he lulled EU states into a false sense of security with cheap gas and oil. Contrary to the basic principles of economic activity—such as multiple sourcing and risk diversification—and despite explicit warnings about Putin—as Otto von Habsburg gave as early as the beginning of the 2000s—many political decision-makers in Europe trusted Putin and entered into a state of sometimes extreme dependency. This now enables Putin to explicitly use Russian energy supplies as a weapon, garnished with nuclear threats.

This war is about the question of a dictatorship’s hegemony over Europe and a cultural struggle between political systems. We are all surely called upon to support Ukraine in its struggle, which is also being fought for us.

Alfred Praus is President of the Ukrainian-Austrian Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Paneuropa Movement Austria. He has lived and worked in Ukraine for many years. At the beginning of the war, he left Kyiv with his family.