A hot war rages in Ukraine, but a hybrid war is waged across Europe — Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze
14 October 2024, 12:00
Chairwoman of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze took part in the conference “Pan-European Idea for Victory and Peace in Ukraine,” held in Chernivtsi.
In her address, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze highlighted that Europe now has a chance to reaffirm its values. However, this does not mean returning to the European Union of ten or twenty years ago. It means relying on values and building a new Europe based on the values of the 21st century, rather than the “realpolitik” of the 19th century. “If we fail to take these critical actions, Europe, the European Union and the West, as a broader concept, will continue to lose to authoritarian regimes that have joined forces and are trying to destroy the remnants of the world order that we know,” stated the Committee Chair. According to her, the Yalta-Potsdam order was deconstructed with the end of the Cold War. However, the West failed to propose new strategies following the collapse of global bipolarity. ”We must now address the questions we left unanswered in the early 1990s, questions that led us to where we are today. As we fight for Ukraine’s survival and its right to determine its own path, we must recognise that this struggle is much broader. It is about the right of every nation and every country to have its own values, to determine them and to follow them. No state has the right to dictate to another country how it should develop,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is convinced.
The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU emphasised that the free world should stop trying to impose Western values on those who do not share them. "China, the Russian Federation, and the Middle East do not embrace our values. We must acknowledge that they are different, that our Western ethics, which aim for universal good, diverge from the ethics of China, which prioritises its interests, or from the ethics of Russia, where everyone should suffer and preferably someone next to you should suffer more. We need strategies to coexist with these other ethics and societies based on other values. But, if they threaten us, we must do everything to isolate them economically and politically and be ready to build a hard wall to protect ourselves from the military aggression,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze emphasised.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze expressed gratitude to all societies, states and politicians that have supported and continue to support Ukraine. But she also cautioned that it is too early to rest on laurels and believe that everything has already been done to stop the war in Ukraine and prevent its spread. Russia has not been defeated yet. “This means that if we are still aiming for such an outcome, we must agree that we cannot trade values for short-term interests, as, regrettably, some leaders of the European Union and NATO countries do. We cannot trade Ukrainian territories for an illusory peace. Nor we can afford delays in supplying Ukraine with weapons or prolonged decision-making on which weapons, in what quantity and when to provide. Such hesitations have caused terrible human casualties and emboldened the aggressor,” the Chair of the Committee emphasised.
According to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, if the free world genuinely aims for Ukraine’s and its own victory, it cannot afford to impose only partial sanctions on the Russian Federation. “We must clearly realise that while the war rages in Ukraine, a hybrid war is already unfolding across Europe. Anti-democratic and anti-Western forces, which oppose the rule of law and the basic values of solidarity, unity, and the protection of human rights, are raising their heads in different parts of the EU. If we fail to call them by their right name and acknowledge that they are backed by Russian fascism, we risk allowing the war to spread further,” warned Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. She believes that if the West had reacted more harshly to the Russian invasion of Georgia, there would have been no war in Ukraine. If there had been a stronger response to the annexation of Crimea and the initial seizure of land in Eastern Ukraine, there would have been no full-scale war. Similarly, a harsher response to the war in Ukraine might have deterred the Hamas attack on Israel. “I believe that today we are witnessing the initial stage of the Third World War in Ukraine. We must either stop it on the territory of Ukraine through joint actions, the provision of weapons and coordinated efforts, fighting the aggressor not only in Europe but in the Western world in general, or we will be forced to pay with security and prosperity throughout the European Union and the member states of NATO. Values and prosperity are interconnected. “If we abandon values, we will lose both security and well-being,” the Committee Chair concluded.
In her address, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze highlighted that Europe now has a chance to reaffirm its values. However, this does not mean returning to the European Union of ten or twenty years ago. It means relying on values and building a new Europe based on the values of the 21st century, rather than the “realpolitik” of the 19th century. “If we fail to take these critical actions, Europe, the European Union and the West, as a broader concept, will continue to lose to authoritarian regimes that have joined forces and are trying to destroy the remnants of the world order that we know,” stated the Committee Chair. According to her, the Yalta-Potsdam order was deconstructed with the end of the Cold War. However, the West failed to propose new strategies following the collapse of global bipolarity. ”We must now address the questions we left unanswered in the early 1990s, questions that led us to where we are today. As we fight for Ukraine’s survival and its right to determine its own path, we must recognise that this struggle is much broader. It is about the right of every nation and every country to have its own values, to determine them and to follow them. No state has the right to dictate to another country how it should develop,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is convinced.
The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU emphasised that the free world should stop trying to impose Western values on those who do not share them. "China, the Russian Federation, and the Middle East do not embrace our values. We must acknowledge that they are different, that our Western ethics, which aim for universal good, diverge from the ethics of China, which prioritises its interests, or from the ethics of Russia, where everyone should suffer and preferably someone next to you should suffer more. We need strategies to coexist with these other ethics and societies based on other values. But, if they threaten us, we must do everything to isolate them economically and politically and be ready to build a hard wall to protect ourselves from the military aggression,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze emphasised.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze expressed gratitude to all societies, states and politicians that have supported and continue to support Ukraine. But she also cautioned that it is too early to rest on laurels and believe that everything has already been done to stop the war in Ukraine and prevent its spread. Russia has not been defeated yet. “This means that if we are still aiming for such an outcome, we must agree that we cannot trade values for short-term interests, as, regrettably, some leaders of the European Union and NATO countries do. We cannot trade Ukrainian territories for an illusory peace. Nor we can afford delays in supplying Ukraine with weapons or prolonged decision-making on which weapons, in what quantity and when to provide. Such hesitations have caused terrible human casualties and emboldened the aggressor,” the Chair of the Committee emphasised.
According to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, if the free world genuinely aims for Ukraine’s and its own victory, it cannot afford to impose only partial sanctions on the Russian Federation. “We must clearly realise that while the war rages in Ukraine, a hybrid war is already unfolding across Europe. Anti-democratic and anti-Western forces, which oppose the rule of law and the basic values of solidarity, unity, and the protection of human rights, are raising their heads in different parts of the EU. If we fail to call them by their right name and acknowledge that they are backed by Russian fascism, we risk allowing the war to spread further,” warned Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. She believes that if the West had reacted more harshly to the Russian invasion of Georgia, there would have been no war in Ukraine. If there had been a stronger response to the annexation of Crimea and the initial seizure of land in Eastern Ukraine, there would have been no full-scale war. Similarly, a harsher response to the war in Ukraine might have deterred the Hamas attack on Israel. “I believe that today we are witnessing the initial stage of the Third World War in Ukraine. We must either stop it on the territory of Ukraine through joint actions, the provision of weapons and coordinated efforts, fighting the aggressor not only in Europe but in the Western world in general, or we will be forced to pay with security and prosperity throughout the European Union and the member states of NATO. Values and prosperity are interconnected. “If we abandon values, we will lose both security and well-being,” the Committee Chair concluded.