the ukrainian war It challenges us from many points of view. The most immediate is the horror of the images coming from Mariupol, Bucha and other towns near kyiv, where Putin’s soldiers have left a trail of devastation and death that could amount to a war crime. The other is the precipitous exodus of more than four million Ukrainians to which must be added the internal displacement of another six million. This means that one in four Ukrainians, the vast majority women and children, have tried to flee the war. It is a unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe which will entail a cost of more than 30,000 million euros for the receiving countries and the European Union, only for the year 2022. Any invasion of one country by another, in addition to constituting a violation of the basic norms of international law has a cost. First of all, for those who suffer from it, in this case, the Ukrainians, but also for the population of the invading country, the Russian citizens whose battered and impoverished economy will suffer an unparalleled setback if Putin’s offensive and sanctions continue. It is logical, therefore, that many citizens wonder, in Spain and in the other countries that support Ukraine, if it is worth the economic effort that this attitude implies, in addition to the one that had to be made recently during the pandemic.
Our answer is affirmative, not only because of the horror that shakes us daily, or because of the solidarity that challenges us in the face of the emigration of millions of Ukrainians. We understand that we must contribute to the defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty because our own freedom is at stake in it. Not only that of the Ukrainians. Like all wars, this one is presented with a great historical and geopolitical complexity, which deserves to be taken into account, but without this serving as an excuse to avoid its main meaning: that of an aggression against a free people to subject it to the expansionist interests and to the political conception of a dictatorship. Hence the cost of this war is the price we are willing to pay for our freedom, because in the world we live in, a comfortable victory for Russia would have been an encouragement for all dictatorships and a sign of weakness for democracies.
The war is assuming a high cost for Spain, in terms of inflation, the lack of raw materials from the Ukraine or Russia, and the impact on our exports. If the offensive continues or even intensifies in the coming days – as the regrouping of the Russian Army in the east of the country seems to indicate – this will not only lead to more suffering for the Ukrainians and more impoverishment for the Russians, but also more sanctions, more refugees and the need for more humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. A higher cost than we have paid so far, and that we must be willing to assume. The decision of the European Commission to study the exclusion of coal from trade with Russia seems to us, in this sense, a necessary measure, which should be extended to Russian gas if Putin launches another offensive. The practical unanimity that occurred in the Congress of Deputies during the appearance of the President Volodymyr Zelensky it is a positive sign of Spain’s willingness to contribute to this effort, although it must be followed by broad political agreements to deal with the war. As the Speaker of Parliament said, Meritxell Batet, in saying goodbye to Zelensky, we must all feel Ukrainian because today in Ukraine we are risking our own freedom and the fate of Europe.