Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted his European allies Thursday for what he portrayed as the continent’s slow, fragmented and inadequate response to Russia’s invasion nearly four years ago and its continued international aggression.

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy listed a litany of grievances and criticisms of Europe that he said have left Ukraine at the mercy of Russian President Vladimir Putin amid an ongoing U.S. push for a peace settlement.

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[–] 10 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Zelensky isn't wrong, but even peacekeeping missions are extremely politically unpopular in Western Europe right now.

The French left is basically saying "it's not our issue, we shouldn't get involved". The far right say the same. The incumbents are barely hanging on to their remaining political capital

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Unless Mélenchon changed his tuned again, last I heard, he was only against loans. Helping, yes, but no strings attached.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago*

    I don't know about Mélenchon but years after the fact I still read a lot of similar slander on the Swedish left. They literally were just in disagreement about how weapons exports should be made possible without breaking existing Swedish legislation, and the issue was addressed in 24 hours, but people still bring up that incident as "the Swedish far left blocked help for Ukraine".

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Zelensky isn’t wrong, but even peacekeeping missions are extremely politically unpopular in Western Europe right now.

    This is why I'm not bullish on the notion of a collective European defense. I'm sure it will happen, but how hamstrung will it be with politics?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I'm not bullish on a collective European defence because Europe thinks it's a spending and rearmament problem, when in fact it's a logistics and coordination one.

    You have a battalion in Spain that you'd need to deploy to Latvia. How do you airlift? Which country has airlifting capabilities, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Far rights became Putin's mouthpiece in most countries.

    Helping Ukraine is a duty of the free world, because we can't afford losing more allies after we lost US.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Most people don't care about duties and honor and values like freedom (even though they say they do).

    Western Europe has frequently "sacrificed" Eastern Europe in hopes of being able to maintain their bourgeois lifestyle a bit longer

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