‘Today it’s about our basic survival. This is the greatest challenge in history.” This statement is not from beleaguered President Zelensky, but from Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s negotiator.
According to spy boss Narushkin, Russia is leading the fight against ‘totalitarian-liberal regimes’ supported by the West. Russian soldiers will never allow America to decide ‘to give Russia a place on the sidelines of history.’
Vice-President of the National Security Council Medvedev says the “special operation” in Ukraine is “running according to Putin’s plan”. Sanctions will not work, because oligarchs have no influence. The ‘special operation’ in Ukraine will continue until all goals are achieved: neutral status, demilitarization, denazification. ‘A normal neighbour’, that is what Russia wants.
This week the focus was on Brussels, but after eight years of war and one month of invasion, we should finally take a closer look at Moscow. Because Putin’s Russia has been in conflict with the West for years. Years in which Washington has often been put to nuclear ashes on Russian TV, schoolchildren receive extra lessons in resistance, and America and the European “vassals” are the enemy, not just in military doctrine.
Now that the Russian blitzkrieg has failed and the Ukrainian resistance proves tough, Moscow is thundering. All the vile tricks that Russia refined in Syria, in the face of Western eyes, are being unleashed on Ukraine. Western sanctions and arms support to Kyiv, which are not without effect, are being used to blame the faltering invasion on the overarching conflict with the West. Even as an aggressor, Russia feels like a victim, which is possible if the truth comes to order. It helps to ‘sell’ the war and fits perfectly into Russia’s post-imperial traumas.
This has consequences for the war and for the Western allies, for whom all this is a shocking disruption of their own plans. They watch with a smile on how Russia is committing war crimes against a country that they hardly even looked at for years. The NATO logic is formally correct, but everyone sees: here the European order is defended to the last Ukrainian.
There is no indication so far that Moscow is looking for a way out in Ukraine. Rather the opposite. And Russia will eventually prevail in a war of attrition – it has more firepower, can recruit more soldiers, and hopes to keep the West at bay with nuclear threats.
Unless Putin suddenly pulls the plug (state propaganda can turn any loss into profit), this war will last longer. That is also what the West must adapt to. Some polls show that citizens understand this better than politicians.
Western countries have been running away from it for years, in Ukraine itself, but also in Syria, now Putin leaves us no choice: somewhere he has to be stopped. Ukraine needs more structural help, on all fronts. Even if that leads to more economic disruption here. There are no fancy or risk-free options. The survival of a free Ukraine is vital to us.
The position of the newspaper is expressed in the Volkskrant Commentaar. It is created after a discussion between the commentators and the editor-in-chief.