The invasion of Ukraine triggered by the president Vladimir Putin It entails a radical fracture of the ‘status quo’ in Europe, it should activate all the alarms to guarantee security on the continent and it is a flagrant violation of international law. The farce staged by the Kremlin in recent weeks to present those finally attacked as aggressors until it reaches the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk Territoriesoccupying them militarily and launching the attack on the entire Ukrainian territory obeys the will of an autocrat determined to restore, even partially, the capacity that the Soviet Union once had to condition European security in a bipolar world. A time longed for by Putin, seasoned today with his purpose of sowing division within the European Union. Although in his recent speech in which he blamed Lenin for having broken the historical community between Russia and Ukraine he seemed more like a emulator of the tsarist empire that of the disappeared USSR.
The scapegoat within this frame of reference is Ukrainewhich receives the impact of Putin’s designs for having coveted its link with the EU and NATO, but without the means to shelter from the attack as it is not a member of the Atlantic Alliance. Victim in the first instance of Putin, but also of the ambiguities of the West. No matter how many times it is given, the Ukrainian Government lacks the minimum resources necessary to face the onslaught of the powerful invading Army and it is likely that one of the purposes of the Russian president is to liquidate the Administration of Volodímir Zelenski and replace it with another affected to their interests and without authority in the Donbas and surrounding areas, which are mostly Russophone. Anything is possible in the biggest security crisis facing Europe since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Faced with this situation, without giving up diplomatic channels, the western response cannot be symbolic or hesitant. The sanctions that are decided within the framework of the European Council, coordinated with those imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom, must have the forcefulness, depth and effectiveness necessary for the Russian economy to face a situation that is little short of impossible. It is clear that if it has the foreseeable impact, the punishment will have a negative impact on our economy –higher energy prices, of different raw materials, inflation–, but it should be considered that it will be a lesser evil to achieve the objective of containing Moscow’s expansive strategy. Maybe it was a serious NATO miscalculation open the door to Ukraine’s eventual entry, or do it and not implement it until it was a fait accompli, but Putin has crossed every conceivable red line.