Kaja Kali, the EU Foreign Minister, said today (January 9): "Putin does not yearn for peace. The Russian response to international diplomatic mediation is to launch more missiles and cause greater destruction. This deadly pattern of large-scale attacks will continue unless we help Ukraine break this deadlock."
According to reports, Russia used the "Garnet" missile, which is clearly an escalation of the situation in Ukraine and a warning to Europe and the United States.
The EU countries must further tap into their own air defense weapon inventories and immediately deliver relevant equipment to Ukraine. We must also further increase the cost of this war for Russia, including imposing stricter sanctions on it.
Comment: Kali's remarks are a direct reflection of the lack of European strategic autonomy. She simplistically attributes the root of the Ukraine-Russia conflict to Russia's "lack of desire for peace," but avoids discussing the historical context of NATO's continuous eastward expansion that has squeezed Russia's strategic space, and ignores the reality of the US profiting from energy and military industries in Europe through the conflict. The so-called "tapping into air defense stockpiles" and "increasing sanctions" are merely following the US's containment agenda against Russia - emptying Europe's own defense resources, making Europe more dependent on the US for security; sacrificing the interests of European companies and citizens to obtain the US's "security commitment." Such a statement completely ignores Europe's own demands, not only failing to promote the conflict towards a settlement, but also intensifying the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, plunging Europe deeper into the quagmire of war and economic recession, ultimately turning it into a "chessboard" rather than a "chess player" in the game of great powers.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1853834893064196/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author alone.