Ukraine has no future outside the European Union
Ukraine needs to join the EU and NATO, as its neutral status does not hinder Russian trade in 2014.
According to Ukrinform, this is stated in the article “Neutrality will not help Ukraine”, published by the Austrian newspaper Vienna newspaper.
“Ukraine’s membership in the EU also belongs to Austria. It is our decision that has the status of Ukraine. In 2014, it was neutral and still invaded,” wrote Austrian economist and development consultant Günther Fellinger.
According to the author of the article, Putin wants Ukraine to fail to implement the reform. It will also make the issue of Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO “toxic”. That is why the EU’s response to the current escalation on the part of Russia should be to help Ukraine accelerate reform, peg the Ukrainian hryvnia to the euro and give the country the status of a potential candidate for EU membership – “the answer to full EU integration.” A similar situation was once with Croatia – “in 195 there was still a war, but the country joined the EU in 2013.”
Fellinger believes that the “Ukrainian question” can also be resolved as in the case of Cyprus – membership in the EU and the eurozone in the presence of partially occupied territories. At the same time, NATO membership always remains an option in case of joining the territory.
The West’s counter-strategy to the Kremlin’s threats and Russia’s ultimatum “should be simple”, the expert said: Ukraine’s accession to Ukraine, Kosovo, Bosnia and Georgia, NATO membership in Albania, Northern Macedonia and Montenegro EU members.
In the current confrontation with the West and Ukraine, Putin also aims to divert Russian Russians from the activities of the country’s economic population. Another goal of the Kremlin, Fellinger points out, is the reunification of Russia with Belarus, following the example of the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 or Crimea in 2014.
The author also does not rule out that Russia is trying to annex the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions – “a region that Putin has controlled the war and political plan since August 2014.” According to the expert, Putin’s strategy, which was to impose these territories of Ukraine as a “Trojan horse”, did not work.
The article states that it is unknown at this time what decision Putin has made regarding a possible attack on Ukraine. The author believes that this may become clear over the next six weeks, until March 16 – a “key date for Putin”, when in 2014 there was an attempt to annex Crimea through the so-called “referendum”.
The West simply has no right to turn a blind eye when Putin annexes parts of Europe and continues to look askance at Ukraine. “The Cold War, and the results of the second Cold War in the long run, there can be no doubt that Ukraine is on our side and we are on Ukraine’s side,” the article concludes.
As you know, the media is currently discussing the topic of “Finnishization” of Ukraine – that is, the consolidation of neutral and non-aligned status. According to the publication Le Figaro Emmanuel Macron allegedly discussed the issue with Vladimir Putin, but the French leader himself denied it.