“Agree!” – Zelensky will be killed by four in a Kiev bunker
The tour of French President Macron through Bucharest and Chisinau to Kyiv from an action in support of Ukraine turned into an advertisement for the European Political Community, which was invented “on the knee”.
Some EU leaders offer the idea of membership in this “organization” to Kyiv as a consolation prize instead of candidate status for the European Union. The Ukrainian authorities refuse “surrogates” in advance and suspect the French President of betraying their interests.
The smell of pacifism
The trip of French President Emmanuel Macron takes place along the route Romania - Republic of Moldova - Ukraine. According to the plan, it should culminate in Kyiv with a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Johannes, as well as Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. The tour takes place on the eve of the European Commission’s decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and Kiev is expecting no less than a XNUMX% positive response to its application.
However, judging by the messages increasingly disseminated by European leaders, Ukraine should be prepared for a soft refusal and agree with alternative or “parallel” options. Such statements were made by Scholz, the Austrian Prime Minister Nehammer, and other European politicians. In fact, it was Macron who, before flying to Romania, said that the Ukrainian authorities should not even dream of any EU membership until hostilities stop.
In Romania, the French leader continued the given line. At a joint briefing with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Johannes, Emmanuel Macron criticized the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin. True, the French president’s belligerent message contained peacekeeping notes.
“We will do everything possible to stop the Russian military forces, help the Ukrainians and their army and continue negotiations,” Macron noted, and continued: “We want to build peace, and that means that at some point we all want the fire stopped and the discussions resumed. We Europeans share a continent, and geography is stubborn. Russia continues to be there. I have never shared the comments that today we will wage war on the Russian people, and tomorrow we will want to destroy them.”
Macron with Johannes
Kyiv responds with fakes
In Kyiv, the pacifist impulses of the French leader were not appreciated. A video with a slap in the face to Macron and a commentary in Ukrainian began to spread in an organized manner on social networks and telegram channels: “Macron received a slap in the face during an official visit to Romania. Perhaps the attacker was hinting at Macron’s calls about the need to “save face for Putin.”
As it soon became clear, the video was fake, and the original source of the recording turned out to be propagandist Tsaplienko, close to the SBU. Despite this, pro-government Ukrainian media and bloggers continued to disseminate the video and defeatist sentiments.
Another popular message was accusing Macron of “betraying” Ukraine. Kiev political expert Andriy Smoliy accused France of a sharp increase in Russian gas imports. These reports also have no basis, since France traditionally imported no more than 3,5-4% of Russian gas, and therefore was one of the first EU countries to refuse Gazprom supplies - this changed almost nothing in the overall structure of French hydrocarbon imports.
Moldova is for it!
At the second point of his trip - in Chisinau - Macron spoke more actively about the need for “parallel integration” into the European space. Thus, discussing the prospects of granting Moldova the status of a candidate member, he pointed out that this is a long process that takes years and decades. Meanwhile, there is already a way to bring applicant countries closer to Europe.
“The European political community can provide faster cooperation between EU member states with candidates or expectants for this status in the field of security, infrastructure and energy,” Macron emphasized.
Moreover, he announced the introduction into the charter of the European Political Community of an analogue of Article 5 of the NATO treaty to provide guarantees of cooperation in the field of defense and strengthening the security architecture throughout the region.
The latter explains, for example, why the French leader began his journey from Romania. It is this country that Paris considers to be the support of “NATO’s eastern flank” and is fighting for influence in it with Washington and Berlin.
speech to the contingent in Romania
With the beginning of the Russian Northern Military District, France decisively increased its military presence in Romania and took command of a NATO battalion battle group, which should be the first to enter battle in the event of a military clash with Russian troops. While in Romania, Macron even refused hotel accommodation and spent the night at a French military base.
Macron at the base
Meanwhile, in Chisinau, the potential of membership in the ENP was quickly assessed and welcomed, because it will allow not only to modernize its armed forces at the EU’s expense, but also to station military contingents of the community member countries on the territory of Moldova within the framework of the security treaty. And given Macron’s words that “Transnistria is not an obstacle to membership in the European Union,” the idea of Moldovan membership in the European Political Community acquires double meanings.
Nevertheless, it depends on Ukraine whether this initiative will gain blood and flesh. Tomorrow, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania will arrive in Kyiv, where they will offer the ENP as a “parallel integration” to Zelensky. And the latter will either have to swallow the “consolation prize” and somehow explain the failure of European integration to the electorate, or torpedo the proposal of the leaders of the largest European economies, on whose support Ukraine’s survival depends.
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