77 years after the defeat of Nazism, war is resurging on our continent. Mariupol concentrates its horror and threat: “The siege of Mariupol is worse than that of Leningrad” in 1941, 87-year-old Elvira Borts recalled.
For the second time, his city, Mariupol is besieged. For the second time, 80 years later, Elvira escaped death: a survivor of the Holocaust, she fled with her husband from the hell of Mariupol. But this city that she had helped to rebuild is destroyed again, bombarded relentlessly. How many men, women, children are dying in its rubble? How many tortured, raped civilians deported to Siberia…? These crimes have one goal: to annihilate the Ukrainian people.
Parade in Mariupol, a masquerade
Russia, which is preparing to commemorate the 1945 victory, plans to parade in Mariupol. It would be a masquerade. Covering the war crimes in Ukraine with the mantle of victory in 1945 is a gross falsification. Mr. Poutine wants to make believe that the Ukrainians are Nazis whereas it is his army which commits crimes which resemble a genocide! The victory of 1945 is that of all the peoples who fought Nazism, including that of the Ukrainians.
The Russian regime tramples on the honor of Russia. Member of the United Nations Security Council, she has ” the responsibility […] maintenance of international peace and security” (1). This means respecting the international conventions that this regime continues to violate… By bombing kyiv on the day of the UN chief’s visit, it effectively excludes itself from this assembly designed to build cooperation and peace between nations. By decorating Boucha’s executioners, he encourages the crimes of the Russian army.
Refuse any questioning of borders
Now is the time to stop his offensive. We must protect the Ukrainians by equipping them more and faster. We must defend the pillars of peace which are the international order and the values that support it. This means refusing any questioning of borders.
On May 9, we will celebrate the feast of Europe founded for peace 72 years ago. The honor and the courage of the Europeans of today demand that they stop financing this war by immediately decreeing an embargo on gas and oil from Russia. Since the beginning of the war, we have already paid him 44 billion euros!
As a founding country of Europe, France has a great responsibility. She must assume it at a time when the President of the Republic has just been invested and where the French are preparing to elect their deputies.
Protect peace and honor
At this crucial time, it is essential to strengthen the European Union. However, seeking peace at the cost of accepting the occupation of part of Ukraine by Russia or disobeying European treaties – which the New People’s Ecological and Social Union advocates – can only lead to divisions within of Europe and weaken it dangerously. This would encourage Russia to continue its crimes in Ukraine and extend its aggression to other countries. Then we would have lost both peace and honor.
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