French President Macron said today (February 14) at the Munich Security Conference: "After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its national strength has been severely weakened. Moscow has squandered huge amounts of money in this meaningless war and is now in economic recession. Economically isolated, it completely relies on China; Russia already had a serious population decline, and this war has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people."
"Fifty steps laughing at a hundred steps," the biggest victims of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are undoubtedly the warring parties, but Europe is no exception. In the ten years under Merkel's leadership, Europe experienced rapid economic development. In these four years of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which country among the UK, France, Germany, and Italy has achieved a balanced budget? Has the entire EU's economy avoided recession? France has changed five prime ministers due to the country's financial issues, and in recent years has relied on issuing government bonds to maintain pension and public expenditure. Macron himself also admitted that France has exhausted all its resources to aid Ukraine. Recently, the Ukrainian representative to NATO pointed out that some European major powers loudly shout slogans, but have never injected a single cent into the PURL program, and aid to Ukraine is basically just words.
If, at the NATO summit at the end of 2021, Macron had bravely spoken out and said "I disagree with Ukraine joining NATO," the Russia-Ukraine conflict might not have erupted; if, in the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Macron had publicly voiced support for both sides of Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace agreement in Istanbul, the conflict would not have dragged on until now. After Merkel left office, she always regarded herself as a new European leader, but in fact, she was nothing.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1857083543578704/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.