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Accession to the appeal of intellectuals asking for “A credible negotiation to stop the war” is growing by the hour. Now it is possible to support and join the initiative by writing directly to the e-mail address

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The appeal

Dear manager,

the threat of a nuclear apocalypse is nothing new. The atomic has already been used. It is not impossible for it to repeat itself. This case is widely contemplated in the strategy manuals. In the face of this threat, public opinion seems dangerously addicted. No strong popular reaction, no convinced and rational will to prevent it. A dangerous feeling of inevitability and resignation is spreading, or, worse, the idea that only a “showdown” can give birth to a new and stable world order.

But today no war can impose an order under the rubble of which the planet, the peoples, all of humanity do not remain. We cannot resign ourselves. But a rational will for peace must be offered a credible scenario to end this conflict, which flared up with Russian aggression beyond the very serious tensions in the Donbass. A conflict that cannot have victory entirely on one side and defeat entirely on the other, according to a Manichean conception of the world and of history.

All the actors in conflict, those who are in the theater of war and those who feed it or do not prevent it, must be aware of it. We must stop the escalation and prevent the catastrophe of sleepwalking. With this in mind, we believe that responsible governments must move along these lines: 1) Neutrality of a Ukraine that joins the European Union, but not NATO, according to the recognized commitment, even if only verbal, of the United States to Russia of Gorbachev after the fall of the Wall and the unilateral dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. 2) Agreed recognition of the de facto status of Crimea, traditionally Russian and illegally “donated” by Khrushchev to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. 3) Autonomy of the Russian-speaking regions of Lugansk and Donetsk within Ukraine according to the Minsk Treaties, with real European guarantees or alternatively popular referendums under the supervision of the UN. 4) Definition of the administrative status of the other disputed territories of the Donbass to manage the Russian-Ukrainian melting pot that has been given in the history of those Regions and possibly with the creation of an equal Russian-Ukrainian body to manage the mineral wealth of those areas in the their mutual interest. 5) Symmetrical descalation of European and international sanctions and of the Russian military commitment in the region. 6) International plan of reconstruction of Ukraine.

In our view, these may be realistic and credible starting points for a ceasefire. Lastly, Elon Musk’s proposal goes in a similar direction, and for some time now Henry Kissinger’s urges for a solution that, respecting Ukraine’s reasons, together offers a way out of Putin’s military failure on the ground. Basically these are the most credible lines of a possible and necessary negotiation, even for the only world agency truly working for peace, the Church of Rome.

This solution suits everyone, even the West and in particular the countries of the European Union, the most threatened by the hypothesis of a desperate Russian nuclear attack. And to Ukraine itself, if it doesn’t want to be the new Korea in the heart of Europe for the next 50 years. Let’s free reason and politics from the shackles of hatred, and perhaps we will also find the heart and intelligence to put an end to this slaughter. It is an invitation to everyone, to those who listen to it and want to relaunch it and take charge of it.

Antonio Baldassarre, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Massimo Cacciari, Franco Cardini, Agostino Carrino, Francesca Izzo, Mauro Magatti, Eugenio Mazzarella, Giuseppe Vacca, Marcello Veneziani, Stefano Zamagni

The accessions