Statement by EES President Dr Ingo Friedrich, March 14th, 2024

Ukraine War and no End?
Two Years After the Start of the Ukrainian War, it is Time to Draw Stock and Analyze What Will Happen Next:

Putin in the “Hitler Trap”

  1. The West as a whole has gained more than it has lost so far: NATO has grown by two countries, Europe is surprisingly close-knit, the economy has coped with the decoupling from energy supplies from Russia, and inflation has fallen significanty.
  2. Ukraine, however, has to cope with terrible losses: It suffers constant civilian bombings, far too many people die every day, and 20 percent of Ukrainian territory is occupied by Russians. Overall, Ukraine finds itself in a terrible and costly defensive battle for survival. For these reasons, she also has the right to primarily decide when the fight should end.
  3. The Russian President and war criminal Putin has so far pretended as if Russia could wage this costly war as a casual, primarily technical military action. But even in a military dictatorship, facts cannot be hidden for long. The war is incredibly expensive and the former Soviet Union also failed, because it could not sustain the expensive arms race with the West in the long run in the so-called Cold War. And the Russian citizens are kept calm by the constant propaganda, but enthusiasm for this wat against the “brother nation of Ukraine” is nowhere to be found.
  4. How will this fight continue: The “combatant” who has the greater reserves and better nerves with survive this terrible confrontation better. There will be no winner or loser in the classic sense. It will amount to a war of attrition: Overall, the potential, meaning the reserves, of the West is by far greater that that of Russia. Even Europe without the USA brings several times more “to the mat” than Russia. Of course, it could take another year or two before the war becomes “unaffordable” in the broadest sense for both opponents, but the time will come. Therefore, the most important thing is to “keep one’s nerve”.
  5. The West or, after a possible election of Trump, Europe alone must draw on the experiences of the Cold War, because we are factually in a new edition of the Cold War, which is only being waged “hotly” in the Ukraine. Even back then, there were Soviet spies everywhere and communist supporters of the Soviet Union sat in many national governments in Europe. Actually, back then it was much harder and more unlikely that the West would win this unequal fight against the huge world power Soviet Union. This time, Russia will not dissolve as the Soviet Union did, but it will suffer a set back and will have to live with another NATO member, Ukraine. Nobody to blame but themselves! And even a President Trump will not burn all bridge to Europe.
  6. Putin is caught in a kind of “Hitler trap”: Putin practically wants to revise and undo the losses of the lost Cold War through his aggressive policies with the aim of restoring the empire. Hitler thought exactly the same when he started World War II. He also wanted to revise the losses of the lost World War I. and restore the old empire. He failed then just as Putin will this time. However, we must ensure that this failure will not occur with a crash, but rather with a “quiet sigh”.