Eva Jinek does not understand the ‘soft’ sanctions package against Russia. She thinks we should make it much more difficult for Vladimir Putin. “Shouldn’t we send troops to Ukraine?”
It is incomprehensible to Eva Jinek that Europe is not prepared to financially cut off Russia from the outside world by disconnecting SWIFT. “It has always been said that there is unanimity, ‘we are going for maximum sanctions’ and ‘this is impossible’,” said the presenter in her talk show of the same name on RTL 4.
Eve doesn’t understand
Eva mainly sees words but not deeds. “We hadn’t seen Merkel since she finished her term and she comes out of retreat to say it’s impossible for this to happen in Europe. An outrageous thing, worse than anything that has happened so far after the Second World War, and then it turns out that the toughest drug there is has not yet passed. I do not understand that.”
Her talk show guest Floor Bremer, reporter for RTL Nieuws: “That is also very difficult to explain. If you ask the Netherlands, they also say: ‘We would have liked it.’ That is what both Minister Hoekstra and Rutte said. But that’s the problem with Europe. There has to be that unanimity.”
Eva: “But it’s impossible to really take a sensitive blow together?”
Floor: “It was in preparation, but you’re right, it hasn’t been taken yet. So you can say: very nice that you are doing this, but of course it is pinpricks towards Putin.”
“Are we doing enough?”
Kajsa Ollongren, the Minister of Defense, takes a seat at Jinek’s talk show table after the first commercial break. It has promised Ukraine military supplies, but they have still not been sent.
Inexistence, Eva thinks. “There is a kind of despair because every second counts. We just see that on the images we receive here. Then there is really no more time to wait for transport that then has to take another route.”
The talk show host continues: “When I hear that the Ukrainian army is good… They are now handing out weapons to 17-year-old boys, like, ‘Yeah, you have to fight now.’ It kind of feels like it’s not enough and too late. I understand you’re sitting here as Defense Secretary, but you’re also just an eyewitness to what’s happening here. Are we doing enough?”
Send troops
Eva asks Kajsa if we shouldn’t just send soldiers to Ukraine. “Shouldn’t we watch people get killed in Europe, but say, for example, ‘Okay, we’re not a member of NATO, but we’re going to send troops there to rescue those people’? Is that an option?”
Kajsa: “That is an incredibly difficult question. (…) But now stepping in with troops is exactly what we have always said: we do that for NATO member states and not for others. That has enormous consequences.”
‘We are nowhere’
Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever thinks Eva’s question is unrealistic. “In Europe, we have always counted on the Americans to deter militarily. We’re nowhere. And now we are supposed to help Ukraine? That’s just not possible, right? If we do our very best, we could at most strengthen the eastern border.”
“Surely we shouldn’t pretend to be tough and think that we can do something in Ukraine? Should we send weapons there? How will they be used? By who? They hand out guns to 17 year olds and they are slaughtered. butchered.”
Fragment
An excerpt from Jinek: