Yuri Josef Koszarycz

Senior Lecturer in Theological Ethics at Australian Catholic University, Queensland

Feb 14, 2025

Putin hopes — not without a reason — that a massive betrayal by the West would be disheartening to a lot of Ukrainians who lost family and friends in the war.

If the USA now dumps Ukraine — and Europe doesn’t rise up to the occasion — then the Ukrainian society may swing towards an alliance with Russia.

Realise this: Putin’s war isn’t against Ukraine — it’s against the Western civilization! Putin needs Ukraine and the Ukrainians as a resource to fight Europe. Putin will mobilize the Ukrainians and send them to fight against Poles, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians. And against the Ukrainians who emigrated to Europe.

The Ukrainians cannot stay out of this fight. They can either fight Russians now — but they need tools for that — or they will be in the fight, either from the side of Russia or from the side of Europe, in the next war.

Which won’t be too far, if the U.S. and the E.U. both betray Ukraine now. If the European Union and Britain side with Ukraine — despite the U.S. betrayal (if the U.S. decides to surrender Ukraine to Putin), Ukraine will withstand.

So, it’s really up to Europe now: do they want to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia — or do they prefer to close their eyes, pretend that nothing is happening, and wake up only when the Russian tanks are in their cities?

If Putin is alive and has the ability to wage war, he will continue on his quest to form a major Eurasian alliance led by Russia. If Europe decides not to side with Ukraine now, they should start learning Russian. 😡