If you extend an olive branch to a bear, it will tear your hand off, writes The Guardian. Winter has just begun, and there are already alarming signs that major European countries – and the EU – are softening their stance on Ukraine and following Russia’s path, Rador cites.

During his state visit to the United States last week, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that Europe must prepare a new security architecture that takes into account Russia’s concerns about NATO expansion and prepare to provide security guarantees if Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to talks. end the war

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke of Russia returning to other countries after the end of the conflict to speak with Putin on the phone for an hour on Friday.

Meanwhile, the head of EU diplomacy [sic!] Ursula von der Leyen posted a video on Twitter in which she claimed 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded since the invasion began, but after a sharp rebuke from Kyiv, the footage was changed to remove Ukrainian casualties. But the news post suggests she wanted to highlight the real cost of war to promote dialogue.

Repeating the Kremlin’s estimates of war losses only helps Russia – Putin’s bombing of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks was intended to make Europeans tremble with fear, and also to force a new wave of refugees into the West.

The EU’s response should not be panicked talk of concessions, but an immediate strengthening of Ukraine’s air defenses and the dispatch of even more generators, along with fuel and other supplies, to help the devastated Ukrainian cities get back on their feet.

It is fair to say that Putin will not leave Ukraine in the near future, and Zelensky is not capitulating. Unless Kiev succeeds in forcing Russian troops out of the country by force of arms, this war can only end through some form of negotiated settlement. But the main thing is that such a peace is concluded on the terms that Ukraine wants.

As we have already learned, similar signals that France and Germany are currently sending, which indicate weakness rather than strength, are by no means an adequate approach to Russia. Moscow’s response to these uninspiring advances demonstrates its intent to use the debate surrounding the talks to try to force European leaders to agree to earlier concessions without making any.

During the conversation with Scholz, Putin told the chancellor that military and financial aid to Ukraine forces Kyiv to reject the very idea of ​​negotiations “from the very beginning” and called on Berlin to change its position. A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference that negotiations would be possible if NATO changed its position towards the former Soviet states, in particular by withdrawing their weapons and refusing to join Georgia and Ukraine.

Dmytro Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, went further, stressing that any talks would be “complicated” by the West’s refusal to recognize the (illegal) annexation of some Ukrainian territories in September.

These are all very predictable things. Instead of Scholz’s conciliatory approach in the face of mass killing and devastation, any discussion of Russia’s comeback among other countries should emphasize the high price it will have to pay to repair the untold damage it has done and continues to do. And Macron would be better off demanding security guarantees from Russia for Ukraine and the rest of Europe, rather than offering NATO to retaliate for Putin’s aggression by accepting Moscow’s dictates regarding the alliance’s legitimate defense policy in Eastern Europe. In other words, the exact opposite of what some Western European leaders seem to be proposing now.

It is at this moment, when Russia is on the defensive and Ukraine is preparing to use the frozen ground to resume its offensive, that the West should show its fangs by increasing military and financial support for Kyiv, and why look at Putin, he should not even answer his phone.

As Foreign Secretary James Cleverley admitted in an interview with The Telegraph on Saturday, if Putin now wants to start negotiations, he is not doing it in good faith, but only to buy time to send more troops and ammunition to the front.

After a shaky start, President Biden now seems fully convinced of this reality, refusing any talks or discussions until Russia leaves Ukraine. This was also the British position from the start of the war. It is vital that we and Europe continue to maintain this position. The Guardian (Rador capture)