Donbas and Crimea will be Europe once Ukraine returns – Czech minister on shape of the West

Ukraine is already, and must remain, part of the Western world. But recent weeks have been a reminder that its accession to the EU and NATO depends on Ukraine's own actions

Jan Lipavský, who has served as the Czech minister of foreign affairs since 2021, is one of Ukraine's staunchest friends among European diplomatic leaders. During his tenure, he has visited Ukraine multiple times, including in February 2022, when he also travelled to the Donbas.

From the very first days of the full-scale war, Czechia has been among the strongest supporters of maximum assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (for example, Czech weapons have never been subject to restrictions on strikes against Russian territory), as well as an unequivocal advocate for Ukraine's membership in both the EU and NATO.

That is why the new tones in Prague's rhetoric, which have emerged in recent weeks, are particularly noteworthy.

We publish here a column by Minister Lipavský, who begins his latest visit to Ukraine on 11 August.

* * * * *

Milan Kundera's famous essay A Kidnapped West from the early 1980s still causes embarrassment among some Ukrainian intellectuals. Kundera did not include Ukrainians among the nations that belong to the West, defined in terms of values and culture.

The famous Czech author mentions Ukrainians only as the target of Russia's efforts to convert them, along with Belarusians, Armenians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and others, into a single Russian nation.  

Donbas and Crimea will be Europe once Ukraine returns. Czech minister on the border of civilised West

If Milan Kundera were to write A Kidnapped West today, he would almost certainly add any city in Ukraine to his famous words: "To die for one's country and for Europe is a sentence that could not have been conceived in Moscow or Leningrad, but it could have been conceived in Budapest or Warsaw."  

For the fourth year now, Ukrainian citizens have been facing barbaric aggression from the east and the whole country has been under Russian attack since the Revolution of Dignity, during which dozens of brave people laid down their lives for their country and for Europe.

Since then, thousands more civilians and tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have fallen victim to Russian tyranny. Every single day, Russia commits war crimes and atrocities, including the targeted abduction and re-education of children.

These atrocities last happened on our continent because of Hitler almost a century ago. 

It should have remained in the past as a memento to future generations.

Yet many still believe that this aggression does not concern the West. That is a terrible mistake.

It concerns us all in a very real way. Ukrainians are defending the values on which Europe stands or falls. They are defending the world we have been building for our children for many decades. 

In the 1980s, Kundera described how "Russian communism awakened the old Russian anti-Western obsession and brutally turned it against Europe." Today, all we need to do is replace the word communism with Putinism or imperialism to understand Russia's motives and goals.

Putin's Russia wants to "re-educate" Ukrainians into a Russian nation and transform Ukraine into a Russian province and satellite in order to disrupt the entire Western civilisation.  

Ukrainians do not want to be "kidnapped" back to the East and realise that only integration into the European Union and NATO will ensure the country's security and prosperity in the future.

Ukraine has our strong support in this, though not unlimited.

It must not slow down the reforms in its country, nor must not in any way question the rule of law and anti-corruption measures. These are fragile but necessary components of Ukraine's path to Europe. We will not compromise on these requirements. 

The coming weeks will be exceptional for Czech-Ukrainian relations. We will significantly strengthen the promotion of our economic and trade cooperation, namely in the industrial heart of Ukraine – in Dnipro.

A city whose citizens are also fighting for their homeland and for Europe. And just like Dnipro, Kherson is Europe, Zaporizhzhia is Europe, and Kryvyi Rih is Europe.

And Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol and Crimea will be Europe when the Ukrainian flag flies over them again, because Ukraine is Europe and is fighting in the clash of civilisations for the future of the Czechs, but also the French, Italians, Germans, Poles, and many other nations.

Ukraine and Europe will prevail!