One hundred Western officials call on Europe to avoid a deal with Russia after US elections
One hundred senior Western officials, including former diplomats, intelligence chiefs and military commanders, have published an open letter calling on Western governments to continue to support Ukraine, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election. The letter, signed on 3 November, is posted on the website of the Democratic Strategy Initiative (DSI) think tank.
The authors of the letter compare the possible consequences of an agreement with Russia to the Munich Agreement of 1938, considering it a dangerous step for Europe and NATO.
The officials note that as the US presidential election approaches, Ukraine and its partners face a double strategic danger.
The first scenario is if Republican Donald Trump wins and tries to impose a deal with Russia on Ukraine that will harm Kyiv’s interests and European security.
‘This will result in Ukraine being outside NATO and the EU, in a state of false neutrality, and Europe in a destabilising geopolitical grey zone in the heart of the continent,’ the letter says.
The second scenario, in which Democrat Kamala Harris wins, assumes that the policy of ‘stagnation and restrictions’, which has so far prevented Ukraine from gaining sufficient support to defeat Russia, will continue.
‘In such a scenario, the fatalism of key European governments, which refuse to believe that Ukraine can win and go – at best – only to strengthen NATO’s defence in response to Ukraine’s defeat, could become decisive within the Alliance, damaging its credibility,’ the signatories of the letter believe.
