A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #203 - Ukrainian Praetorian Guard of Europe (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Council of the European Union, meeting in Brussels on 18 December 
2025, decided that "the European Union will cover Ukraine's urgent 
financial needs in 2026-2027 by allocating 90 billion euros over the 
next two years through a credit guaranteed by the EU budget." It decreed 
a terminal crisis in the welfare and future economic prospects of the 
countries of the Union . The exceptions are Hungary, the Czech Republic 
and Slovakia, which have legally refused to participate in the 
zero-interest European financing for the years 2026-2027.[1]
It also decided that Russia will not recover its assets until "its 
aggression against Ukraine ceases." Ukraine, for its part, will repay 
the credit only after Russia has paid war reparations, while the 
European Union reserves the right to use the frozen assets to repay this 
credit.
By taking this decision, European governments are knowingly mocking the 
citizens of various European states, knowing full well that Russia is 
winning the war on the ground and will therefore never repay any war 
debt. Since the dawn of time, the victors have not paid war damages, and 
usually, even the losers have not repaid them, except in part. The EUR90 
billion "loan" is therefore a non-repayable grant and will be entirely 
borne by the current and future EU budget, compromising the ability of 
individual states to continue providing welfare to their citizens.
Hoping for rearmament as an opportunity to boost the economy, fueling 
GDP growth in individual states and thus repaying debt incurred on the 
markets, is an illusion, given that the European states-servile-have 
committed to the US hegemon to purchase weapons in the US both to 
prosecute the war and to rearm themselves.
It would therefore be in the best interest of EU citizens to end the 
conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible and restore diplomatic and 
energy relations with Russia. It must be done now, before the US-Russian 
alliance that both Trump and Putin are pursuing consolidates to the 
point of allowing them to divide the old continent into spheres of 
influence.
To do this, we must overturn the narrative that Europe's participation 
in this war is motivated by the need to save the democracy and freedom 
that reigns in Ukraine, threatened by the imperialism and colonialism of 
Russian oligarchs.
Ukraine and Russia are both oligarchic regimes, enemies of individual 
and collective freedoms, and both driven by a radical nationalism, the 
foundation of both state structures. The difference is that while 
Russian nationalism confirms a thousand-year history, Ukrainian 
nationalism needs to assert itself, as it lacks historical roots and is 
in a constituent phase and is therefore more radical. Furthermore, 
Ukrainian nationalism is openly xenophobic, ethnic, linguistic, 
supremacist, and opposed to religious freedom and equality among the 
various faiths and their followers, the numerous ethnic groups living in 
the country, to the point of having suppressed them culturally and 
institutionally.
Nor is it worth invoking the principle of non-aggression to defend 
Ukraine, since conflicts between nationalisms inevitably manifest 
themselves in war, which alters the scope of state jurisdiction and 
territories, exactly as occurred during the war in Yugoslavia, in which 
the West forcibly imposed
the creation of Kosovo on Serbia. That said, it should be noted that the 
EU leaders' summit highlighted deep internal divisions over how to 
finance aid to Ukraine and coincided with massive farmer protests 
outside the government buildings, sparked by the simultaneous decision 
to sign the Mercosur Treaty (a topic we will address in the next issue). 
It is no coincidence that the European Union budget contains a 
significant reduction in EU funding for agriculture, despite this 
productive sector being one of the founding and constitutive elements of 
the Union.
The focus on maintaining Ukraine's war machine represents a convenient 
diversion of resources from the EU's growing internal problems, which 
include, but are not limited to, farmers' discontent. The EU's economic 
stagnation is largely self-inflicted, as the EU accepted the destruction 
of Nord Stream 2, and cannot be addressed by political leaders so out of 
touch with reality that they speak of "inflicting a strategic defeat on 
Russia," a nuclear power, especially when it is winning on the 
battlefield. The line strongly advocated by Merz and von der Leyen was 
defeated, and the European Council instructed the Commission to continue 
work on the "reparation loan" linked to frozen Russian assets, to 
provide a measure of satisfaction to this component. It goes without 
saying that what is not done today to avoid scaring away investors will 
not be feasible tomorrow, especially if Russia wins the war on the 
ground. The decision has split the camp of the willing, as it was 
supported by France, Italy, Belgium, and Spain. To ease the burden of 
the decision on Germany, the Baltics, and Poland, the EU Council argued 
that the solution adopted constitutes an opening toward the United 
States and its attempt to reach a peace agreement with Russia.
While the decision presumably leaves Russian financial assets intact, 
due to Fitch's warning to Euroclear of a possible downgrade of its 
current AA rating, it will thwart the EU's plans to utilize frozen 
assets held by the Russian Central Bank, making the European market 
extremely uncertain, especially since the peace proposals of the 
pro-Russian side only prolong the conflict.

The proposals of the "willing"

The funding granted is intended to prolong the conflict to gain time to 
rearm and defend themselves from Russia, but the so-called "willing" are 
calling for an immediate ceasefire and supporting Ukraine's proposals 
for border inviolability; they are demanding war reparations from 
Russia; they are supporting Ukraine's demand for an 800,000-man army 
after the war, and for an interposition force, including Western 
countries, to be deployed in the country in exchange for Ukraine 
formally renouncing NATO membership; and they are allowing Ukraine to 
join the EU, bypassing the EU membership procedures, which require 
unanimous acceptance by all current members. The unacceptability of 
these demands by Russia is evident and would not lead to an end to the 
war. The decision taken and the demands supported make a solution to the 
conflict impossible, which can only come from the battlefield.

Poppies and ducks who would like to win the war (Sic!)

Indeed, Russia's renunciation of the territories it claims would result 
in Putin's restitution of the conquered territories, while the presence 
of Western troops, Ukraine's allies, would represent a strategic defeat 
for the country and would confirm the persistence of the Western threat 
on its borders, thus rendering Ukraine's declared renunciation of NATO 
membership meaningless. Russia is aware that the request for an 
immediate ceasefire would only serve to allow Ukraine to reorganize and 
rearm, attempting to overcome its current difficulties. It also knows 
full well that EU membership would only constitute an economic burden 
for its adversaries, who would have to shoulder the cost of rebuilding 
the country-a cost they would like to pass on to Russia.
Their proposals effectively undermine peace negotiations, while on the 
battlefield, Russia is on the offensive on all fronts. Ukrainians and 
Europeans downplay Russia's military successes on the battlefield, 
highlighting the supposed slowness of their advance, although it's 
unclear what the yardstick for such an assessment should be. This is 
while on the battlefield, the Russians have begun their winter campaign, 
during which they will continue to advance, dismantling one by one the 
last strongholds of the Donbass defenses, Kramatosk and Slovianx, and 
extending their occupation of the territory to include the entire 
Zaporizhia Oblast, as well as Dinipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, adding two 
more oblasts to the lands claimed. All this without considering that a 
not-impossible collapse of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield could 
allow Putin to extend his claims to the Odessa Oblast, cutting off the 
country's sea access, as he has declared.

The future size of the Ukrainian army

It remains to be explained why Ukrainians and those willing to join 
forces have called for a Ukrainian army, once the conflict is over, to 
number 800,000 men, becoming the largest army in Europe and the largest 
in terms of both weaponry and professionalism. To understand this, it 
suffices to consider that such an oversized war machine would require 
significant economic resources to maintain its operations. It may be 
said that these would be provided by the European Union, but this choice 
would make the Ukrainians the Praetorians of Europe, committed to 
fighting wars for the entire EU, given the limited will and aptitude of 
the citizens of the countries currently belonging to it, the demographic 
decline, their advanced age, and the unwillingness of both young and old 
to become warriors. Such an army would also be very useful, above all, 
for controlling the defenseless populations of other countries intending 
to rebel against their rulers, satisfying the needs of sovereignist 
governments and their followers.

[1]Since the beginning of the conflict, the EU and the G7 have frozen 
about half of Russia's foreign reserves, with over EUR200 billion held 
in Euroclear's accounts in Belgium. The EU, having exhausted its 
available resources to finance the Ukrainian war, has unsuccessfully 
pressured Belgium to authorize the use of frozen Russian funds. 
Meanwhile, the Russian Central Bank has filed a lawsuit against 
Euroclear for over 18 trillion rubles, claiming it has suffered damages 
from restrictions on the management of its assets.

Gianni Cimbalo

https://www.ucadi.org/2025/12/23/ucraini-pretoriani-deuropa/
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