Crimea as the Sudetenland: European Commissioner warns of repeating the mistake of 1938

European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius has warned that the West risks repeating serious historical miscalculations similar to those that preceded World War II in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

He made this statement at the Kyiv Security Forum.

He drew attention to five critical miscalculations that are now becoming apparent.

The first problem is the insufficient level of support for Ukraine, noting that despite the annual allocation of tens of billions of euros, this is less than 0.1% of the GDP of the United States and the EU and is incommensurate with their own defense spending. According to him, such limited assistance does not reflect the true danger that Russia poses not only to Ukraine but to the whole of Europe.

Kubilius believes that the second mistake is the reluctance of Western countries to clearly define who is the aggressor and who is the victim in the ongoing war. This, in his opinion, blurs the moral and political clarity of the conflict.

The third mistake is the illusion that it is possible to normalize relations with the PIN after the war is over. Kubilius emphasized that such hopes only push Russia to new acts of aggression and send the wrong signal to other authoritarian regimes.

He paid special attention to the topic of Crimea. He compared the hidden or tacit recognition of the annexation of the peninsula to the fatal compromise of 1938, when European leaders allowed Hitler to seize the Sudetenland. In his opinion, concessions on the issue of Crimea are a repetition of the historical mistake made by British Prime Minister Chamberlain.

Kubilius called the resistance to Ukraine's accession to NATO the fifth big mistake. He emphasized that the Kremlin is seeking this not because it fears an attack from the Alliance, but because it fears the effective defense of Ukraine that NATO can provide.

Ірина Глухова