Gabrielius Landsbergis
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania
Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania | #StandWithUkraine
Vilnius, Vilniaus, Lithuania
April 25, 2025
Nobody should be surprised if the US dumps a dead cat deal at Europe’s door. Trump might simply tell Europe to “take it or leave it”. Sadly, it is not currently apparent that Europe is ready to be put in this dilemma. But ready or not, leave it we must.
Europe would face a historic choice—either defend international law by continuing to support the victim whatever it takes, or attempt to retain US support in the rest of Europe by abandoning part of, or all of, Ukraine.
This choice would be far more difficult than many expect. Europe does not feel ready and we do not yet believe we have what it takes to defend either Ukraine or ourselves. Meanwhile, Putin is continuing to threaten WWIII if Europe stands by Ukraine with more than words. These threats, although empty, continue to hypnotise and paralyse.
There will be those who argue, cynically, that Ukraine is not our fight. They’ve said it before, and now they will have a new argument: we cannot risk losing US protection over some kind of Eastern European “territorial dispute”.
Others may suggest Europe pretends to take the deal to buy some time. But that is a false hope. Plenty of time was already given to us—Ukraine heroically and tragically bought us three years to prepare. Unfortunately we didn’t use it. It is likely that the extra time would be used to kick the can further down the road.
But what’s more—taking the deal, even as a delaying tactic, would mean selling out Ukraine.
Selling out would be the perfect example of Churchill’s warning about “feeding the crocodile”. No matter how many of your friends you feed to your enemy, he will come for you eventually. It’s only a matter of time. Selling out would merely initiate the slow suicide of Europe.
We must do whatever we can, now, because there will be no magical Plan B that leaves our freedoms intact without sacrifice. Defence requires defence. Whatever tools we have, we must use them. Whatever decisions we should have made earlier, we must make them now. The enemy will not wait patiently until we figure this out.
Right now, today, we face a decision that will define the future of Europe. Either we grit our teeth and fight for the cities, skies, trenches and beaches of Ukraine, or we wave the white flag of shameful surrender, throw our friends to the crocodile and cower behind a bush until our own countries appear on the menu.
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Comment from :
Peter Nightscales
As has been proven before – you cannot negotiate with a terrorist. Neither Putin or trump can be relied on to tell the truth, nor can they be trusted. What’s more, I doubt very much that putin has any interest in trump’s or America’s welfare. Just as Hitler signed and agreement with Soviet Russia over Poland, then attacked russia as soon as he could. So too, russia will play Trump off against Ukraine and Europe and when it suits him, he will try to invade again.
Eric Dumont
Gabrielius Landsbergis We need to accept that Trump’s America is aligned to Putin’s Russia, they are being coy about it BUT to Trump’s cabinet a liberal democratic and unified Europe is a greater threat than Russia. The time is now for bold action and societal mobilization. We need more politicians like you Gabrielius Landsbergis and Kaja Kallas who have the stones to say what needs to be said.
For now, America is not a friend to Europe and more of us need to wake up to that fact and get moving on decoupling from the US and quickly build sovereign stronger capabilities across business, technology and the military. We have the means. My question is: “Do enough people have the will?”
Kill Russia economically, while the US commits suicide as a country. Consider it a 2 for 1. One day a decent leader will come to both countries…in Russia, it will be welcomed, and in the US? Well….maybe those that supported the Orange Death will figure it out.
Anthony H.
Excellent article. Europe has the wealth, population size, resources and infrastructure to defend and protect its own border security, energy independence/security and military industrial complex, make no mistake about that fact. Including the UK, Ukriane, Turkey and secondary countries, Europe is a population of 760million people,…..5 x the population of Russia & 10 x the wealth capabilities. The time is now for some Churchillian leadership,…..and the only country I see they coming from is Polands Prime Minister, with the UK 🇬🇧 a close second behind.
Star comment from Eric Beneke :
Ukraine with the assistance they received in the first three years has severely blunted the Russians already. What they need is a package and assistance to push the Bear over the cliff. Russia has never been this weak and it serves Allies from the Cold War. They wont last a week against Nato might. So now is the time to stop mucking about and give Ukraine what they need to finish the job. If Europe appears weak, Putin will take advantage of that. If not him some maniac with the same mindset and there is a lot of them. Its almost genetically inbred for them. Get up and Stand up NOW for Democracy and respect for International Law. Else our kids will have to fight the Russians at a later stage. This is a 1939 moment and we sure better not make the same mistake. It wont take much from Europe to give Ukraine the Right Tools. This includes Taurus to finish off that Bridge.
Trump is a mindless moron whose incompetency is surpassed only by his turpitude.