Pascal Fieschi, Philippe de Suremain, Jean-Paul Veziant and Jacques Faure have all four been French ambassadors to Ukraine.
While all the cities of Ukraine, the capital Kiev and the whole territory are suffering from the shelling of the Russian army and the invasion of armored columns and Russian soldiers, while discussions are held on the border between Ukraine and Belarus while bombs are falling at the same time on Kharkiv, the Ukrainians with their army, their governmental authorities and their President Zelensky are defending with remarkable courage and coolness their freedom, their independence, their sovereignty and their inalienable right to live in peace.
We must then clearly ask: who is threatening whom?
Ukraine does not threaten Russia.
In 1994, it renounced the nuclear arsenal inherited from the former USSR.
Russia signed in the Budapest Protocol the commitment to respect the independence, the territorial integrity, the sovereignty of Ukraine within its borders.
Moscow also pledged to refrain from pressure, threats and the use of force against Ukraine.
In 1997, the ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet was divided to the great advantage of Russia.
A treaty of friendship, cooperation and partnership renewed Russian commitments.
The contractual stationing of the Russian fleet (and all its personnel on board and ashore) in Crimea, then an autonomous republic within the framework of Ukraine, was approved until 2017.
President Zelensky summed up his country's situation well last February in Munich:
“We have neither weapons nor security, but we simply want to have the right to exist”.
The four former French ambassadors to Ukraine
A third agreement signed in 2010 by Viktor Yanukovych, then Ukrainian president, extended this period until 2042.
The colossal disproportion between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces does justice to the threat charge against Russia.
President Zelensky summed up his country's situation well last February in Munich: “
We have neither weapons nor security, but we simply want to have the right to exist”.
Since 2008 and the NATO summit in Bucharest, Russia knows very well that this subject is not on the agenda.
Ukraine under the Yanukovych presidency wanted to be a
“non-bloc power”
in 2010 .
This kind of neutrality did not spare him the annexation of Crimea by Moscow or the outbreak of the war in Donbass in 2014. For eight years, Ukraine has been under attack.
This conflict caused approximately 14,000 victims and millions of displaced persons.
Free Ukraine strives to build a democratic and European state out of the political, economic and social chaos of the former USSR.
It is clear that Ukraine has governance that can always be improved, that it is reforming in depth by guaranteeing fundamental freedoms, political and media pluralism, respect for the rule of law, all aspects that society lacks poutinian.
The four former French ambassadors to Ukraine
How does the existence of an independent Ukraine bother Russia?
Independence was approved in 1991 by 91% of Ukrainians, that is to say also by the majority of Russians settled there by the former USSR.
Free Ukraine strives to build a democratic and European state out of the political, economic and social chaos of the former USSR.
This process is laborious but has accelerated since 2014. It is clear that Ukraine has governance that can still be improved, that it is reforming in depth by guaranteeing fundamental freedoms, political and media pluralism, respect for rule of law, all aspects that Putin's society lacks.
Conversely, Vladimir Putin locks himself into the mythological and nationalist rewriting of history which wants Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to be one and the same people.
Well no.
Ukraine exists and it has its consistency over time and space.
Admittedly, its destiny was for a time linked to that of Russia, there were many interactions, but the two countries separated and their paths diverged.
The Ukrainian and Russian languages, spoken with ease by many families in Ukraine, are however not identical.
And their literary glories are not the same, Chevchenko on one side and Gogol on the other, even if their writings depict certain Ukrainian realities.
The Russian leader does not want the success of a free, democratic Ukraine turned towards the European Union, which would mean the failure of his dream of Eurasia.
And we have seen in the Balkans to what horrors any mythological and nationalist rewriting of history leads.
Vladimir Putin claims to attack to
"demilitarize, denazify and restructure"
Ukraine.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: on social networks, despite censorship, Russians express themselves without filter
Demilitarize what?
The overwhelming disproportion of forces in favor of Russia makes this grotesque pretension very dangerous.
That Vladimir Putin begins to apply to his own forces the need for demilitarization.
The considerable sums devoted to the military-industrial tool would be more usefully spent to improve the poor standard of living of many Russian citizens.
Denazify who?
Between the one who crushes his neighbor under the bombs and raids of his soldiers and the one who heroically defends his homeland unjustly attacked for eight years, look for the Nazi.
Who practices the policy of fait accompli and aggression under false pretenses, as was the case against Poland in 1939?
Who obeys a political vision that wants force to prevail over law, that signed treaties are only scraps of paper and freely agreed commitments so many decoys to deceive the partner?
The Ukrainians are defending with exemplary courage and at the cost of too many human lives their freedom, their sovereignty, respect for equal treatment between States, their inalienable right to a free, democratic, peaceful and prosperous existence.
The four former French ambassadors to Ukraine
Restructure?
Vladimir Putin seeks to break up a sovereign state, overthrow its democratically elected authorities, stage a pseudo-Nuremberg trial (lists of Ukrainian authorities to be judged would be prepared) and hopes to later control all or part of the Ukraine.
The Ukrainians are defending with exemplary courage and at the cost of too many human lives their freedom, their sovereignty, respect for equal treatment between States, their inalienable right to a free, democratic, peaceful and prosperous existence.
They also defend a vision of the world that is ours, the one that led the Member States of the
But supporting the Ukrainians does not mean being at war with the Russian people, deprived by Vladimir Putin and his propagandists of free access to pluralistic information, and who still do not fully know that their army is not carrying out a
"temporary special operation
which would only aim at the Donbass to protect the Russians threatened with genocide (sic), but on the contrary invades and crushes under the bombs the territory of a
“
brother people”
.
Vladimir Putin will find it difficult to explain this war to his population, whose extraordinarily courageous elements brave repression to cry out against the war, in several cities and on what remains of independent social networks.
It will also be more difficult to persuade, in the long term, the conscripts surprised by the resistance offered to them by a people they would have come to
"liberate".
They could be as confused as their elders in Prague in 1968, Kabul in 1979, Vilnius and Tallinn in 1991 and Moscow during the August 1991 putsch.
We unhesitatingly support the Ukrainian cause.
We are not in the wrong opponent in Russia.
Only the criminal power of Vladimir Putin is responsible for this war.
The four former French ambassadors to Ukraine
We speak of these tragic events as citizens, but also because our past professional lives have made us know and love the citizens, languages and cultures of Russia, Ukraine and the vast area stretching from Baltic to the Black Sea.
We tried to represent our country as best we could.
We unhesitatingly support the Ukrainian cause.
We are not in the wrong opponent in Russia.
Only the criminal power of Vladimir Putin is responsible for this war.