Keeping 'gray zones' in Europe plays into Putin’s hands — top EU security official

Rasa Juknevičienė, Deputy Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence and former Lithuanian Defense Minister, said this in an interview for the program European Space with Yuriy Fizer on Espreso TV.

“When I talked about NATO, that was during our plenary debate on the upcoming NATO summit. I spoke about some mistakes that have already been made in our recent history. I mean what happened before 2014 when many countries pursued a policy of engagement with Russia. In 2008 when Ukraine and Georgia were not invited to join the NATO Membership Action Plan.

At that time no one was seriously considering EU enlargement either. Only after 2014, and even now in 2023, when Ukrainians were able to push Russians back from Kherson and Kharkiv, that was the right moment to do everything possible to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces and help them move forward.

If we had acted then, we might be in a very different situation now. But at that time, as we all remember, fear prevailed, not boldness. There was nuclear blackmail from the Kremlin, and that fear led to what I believe were major mistakes. And now we are where we are,” Juknevičienė emphasized.

According to the Deputy Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence, it is extremely important to realize that maintaining gray zones on the European continent plays into Putin’s hands. Putin is an opportunist who advances exactly as far as he is allowed. We cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes. We must have the courage to stand firm, resist, and not be afraid of victory over this terrorist state. At the same time, some politicians still do not fully share this approach, and we are already seeing signs of this, particularly in Washington’s position.

“Sorry to say, but sometimes I feel like I am reading history textbooks about 1938 when some politicians believed it was possible to have peace talks and agreements with Hitler. We all know what happened afterward. These are now political battles. I call them our battles on the Western front line to convince and change the attitudes of some politicians toward this war.

I do not know if it is possible to change the attitude in Washington DC, but at least in European capitals I have high hopes for Berlin and the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz. His position is strong and clear. The more politicians and leaders like Friedrich Merz we have, the better for Ukraine and the better for us,” Juknevičienė added.

• On Wednesday, June 25, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that America supports Article 5 of the NATO treaty, and, commenting on attacks on Iran, recalled the strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.