Let me cordially invite you to an online discussion titled “Western Fears of Russia’s Defeat in Ukraine: When will the ‘pro-Ukraine’ coalition become an ‘anti-Putin’ coalition?” organised in the framework of the Friends of European Russia Forum and the United for Ukraine (U4U) network.
Since the beginning of the Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the West's support for Ukraine has been enough to prevent it from losing, but it fell short of helping Ukraine win. The numbers speak for themselves: in 2023, Russia spent more than €100 billion to finance the war, while the Ukrainian side, with all the Western support, was only able to mobilise €80 billion worth of resources to equip Ukraine's defence, of which €40 billion were Ukraine's own. Total Western military support to Ukraine in 2023 was less than 0.1% of Western GDP, while the economic potential of the West is 25 times that of Russia.
The reason for such an unacceptable reality is that the West is afraid of Russia’s defeat, the collapse of Putin’s regime and the consequences thereof. That is why the West’s declarations about Ukraine’s victory paradoxically are not followed by the Western statements on the need of Russia’s defeat. That is why the West hesitates to provide sufficient military support to Ukraine for its victory and Russia’s defeat.
What fears prevent the West from committing to Ukraine’s victory and the military defeat of Russia on Ukrainian soil? Are those fears justified? How can those fears be overcome?
We will have exceptional opportunity to hear insights on the topic by renowned Ukrainian, Russian and EU experts.
PROGRAMME:
Introductory remarks:
Andrius KUBILIUS, MEP, Standing Rapporteur on Russia in the European Parliament
Panel discussion:
Vladislav INOZEMTSEV, Ph.D., Russian economist and publicist
Garry KASPAROV, Russian political activist and writer, Anti-War Committee, World chess champion
Valerii PEKAR, economist, writer, co-founder of NGO Nova Kraina (The New Country), Ukraine
Benjamin TALLIS, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Head of Action Group Zeitenwende, DGAP, Germany
Marie MENDRAS, Professor at Sciences Po University Paris, author of ‘La guerre permanente. Ultime stratégie du Kremlin’ (Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 2024), France
Q&A session
The event will take place on 9 April 2024, 14.30-16.00 CET (Brussels time) on Zoom.
All registered participants will receive the link shortly before the event.
The discussion will be held in English with interpretation to Russian.
Articles written by the speakers of tomorrow's webinar related to the topic of the discussion:
1. Andrius Kubilius: Will Lithuania start building an anti-Putin Western coalition to implement Russia’s anti-Putin strategy?
2. Vladislav Inozemtcev: « Коалиция коалиции рознь, или Условия победы над Россией »
3. Garry Kasparov: « Русский Тайвань »
4. Valerii Pekar: Ukraine must clearly communicate post-war vision to allies to drive conflict resolution
5. Valerii Pekar & Dmytro Zolotukhin: Re-federalisation: avoiding the risk of Russia’s collapse
