On May 13, the Swiss parliament voted to amend the military means law. For the first time since 1815, Bern would consider providing military assistance to another country. On the same day, Germany announced the largest package of military aid that Berlin will provide to Ukraine over the entire period of a full-scale war, amounting to EUR 2.7 billion. In the context of Russia’s belligerence, it is obvious that neutrality and attempts to turn a blind eye to the obvious Russian threat that looms over Europe are disastrous. Every single day, Russia offers new evidence that its army will not stop in Ukraine and, given sufficient military resources at hand, will eventually invade the EU. Ukraine has become a shield for Europe in the face of a threat unseen since WW2: Putin seeks to destroy Western civilization — the first stage of this war has already begun in Ukraine.
In April 2023, Swiss President Alain Berset said that his country would not supply weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, given Bern’s traditional neutrality. A month later, the Swiss parliament adopted legislative changes that are likely to facilitate arms supplies to Ukraine. Why did Switzerland’s position change so quickly? The longer the war of conquest unleashed by Putin in Ukraine continues, the bleaker the future of Europe becomes. Despite the obvious fiasco on the battlefield and losses in manpower and military equipment unprecedented since 1945, Russia is not going to stop. Over the 14 days of May, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched seven massive missile attacks exclusively on civilian targets across Ukraine. Operators enter target coordinates into Kh-101/555 cruise missiles in advance, which means that the Russians deliberately seek to kill Ukrainians. Putin gains no advantage by killing Ukrainian civilians. He seeks to provoke devastation and even more casualties in Ukraine, which he hates. Despite sanctions, Russia is manufacturing missiles and buying UAVs from Iran for the sole purpose of continuing genocide against Ukrainians. If the Kremlin dictator triumphs in Ukraine, he will then launch an invasion of Europe.
The world we knew before February 24, 2022 no longer exists — Putin has destroyed the picture of the world that is familiar to every European and is preparing for a total war that will inevitably come to every European house. Through its invasion of Ukraine, not only is Russia reviving the practice of territorial seizures, destruction or deportation of entire peoples but it also wants to weaken Europe with a longer war in order to eventually destroy it, too. No negotiations with Putin make sense: despite Russia’s false calls for peace, the aggressor keeps killing and destroying. If someone in Europe still harbors the illusion that it is possible to wait out the war on Ukrainian soil until it simply “stops», this can lead Europeans to disaster. Russia can fight in Ukraine for years at a similar pace, gradually mobilizing new batches of «cannon fodder,» producing or importing deadly weapons, destroying the demographic potential of an innocent nation which fell victim to the Kremlin only because they expressed a desire to simply be free. The worst thing is that in the Kremlin offices, the decision to pursue the war is made by people, disconnected from reality, who have lost their common sense. Calls for peace and an end to the bloodshed will lead to nothing but Russia’s further preparation for genocide – this time on the territory of Europe because the massacres of a civilian population is the only thing the Russian army has quite succeeded in. If Russian army isn’t defeated with modern Western weapons in Ukraine, Europe will again find itself under the boot of the Russian soldier, as they did in 1945.