A thin line on which Europeans balance

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The European Union called for a summit in Brussels on the 15th of this month, and it was its first summit since returning from the summer vacation. The summit was at the level of heads of government and states, and it seemed, since the invitation to hold it was issued, that it was burdened with its agenda, and that it was an agenda filled with what it could put on the table, and then with what it could discuss, which would be the subject of endless controversy.

But the item that dominated the rest of the items on the agenda was the item on the Russian-Ukrainian war, and if we want to be precise, we can say that a specific aspect of this war, which entered its fifth year in February of this year, was the one that rose above all others.

This is a war with many faces, and among the faces, for example, is the extent of support that Europe must provide to Ukraine in its war with the Russians. This support has increased and increased until there is no longer a member state of the Union that has not provided a lot in order for Ukraine to prevail in its war or to withstand as little as possible.

But this aspect is taken for granted, not for nothing, except because the European continent has an almost stable conviction that the Russian ambitions that were evident in Russia’s war on Ukraine do not stop at the borders of the Ukrainian state, but rather extend to reach other countries on the old continent, and in its eastern wing in particular, as it is the wing closest to the Russians.

Russia does not forget that it is the heir to the Soviet Union that once existed, and that it was the power equivalent to the power of the United States of America at its time, and that until its collapse and disappearance in 1991, it lived in competition with America, and the two powers were like two betting horses in a race that lasted decades.

Russia inherited it when God Almighty destined it to disappear, and when it inherited it, it looked around and discovered that many of the countries that were under its umbrella and then became independent with its collapse, had hastened to join the European Union, as if they had exchanged one union for another, as if they had changed the direction and nothing more, as if they had found what they were looking for in Brussels, where the headquarters of the European Union was, after they had been finding what they were looking for in Moscow, which is the capital of the Soviet Union and where the future Kremlin building is located.

All of this was never lost on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his war that he launched against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 was based on a deep-rooted conviction that says that Ukraine is one of the countries that broke away from the Soviet Union, and that its breakup was a challenge to the power of Russia as it is the legitimate heir to the Union, and that it is nothing less than that he, as President of Russia, should regain some of the land from which Ukraine gained independence, and then it began adding it to the European Union when it knocked on its door. I requested membership in it.

You find this meaning present in Putin and his government’s talk about the war on Ukraine, and if he happens to hide this meaning in his talk or tries to hide it with members of his administration and government, it will soon appear in a word here or a phrase there that is scattered among Russian words and phrases!

According to the logic of Freud, the famous psychologist, none of people’s experiences completely disappear, but rather remain on the margins of memory, or in a marginal side space in the depths, so that when an opportunity comes, we find that these hidden, hidden experiences appear in the form of fleeting behavior once, or in the form of a casual sentence a second time, or in the form of an emergency behavior that we do not expect and its owner does not expect a third time... Something of this you find moving from the level of ordinary people, to the level of Putin and the pillars of his administration, whenever they talk about war with... Ukraine, especially about its true motives, which may not be said explicitly in front of the cameras.

I go back to the aspect that dominated the first item at the European Union summit more than any other aspect. I say that it is the aspect of the United States’ fluctuating position on the Russian-Ukrainian war. Since his return to the White House, President Trump has adopted an approach in this war that has made him closer to the Russians than to the Europeans. This is in contrast to the position of former President Joe Biden, and the latest evidence of that is the diesel deal between Trump and Putin. This is what makes the Europeans confused. They do not know how to act independently, and how at the same time not to clash with the Trump administration? They are walking on a very thin line, and they hope to balance it during the remainder of President Trump's administration.