[This editorial is also available in Ukrainian.]
So, what will it take for Europe's leaders to wake up at the dawn of a year that could well seal the continent's fate for a long time to come?
Their measured support for Ukraine shows that they have not grasped the full extent of the war that Putin has declared against them. When we look later at the attitude of the West, in addition to the revelations about the omnipresent pro-Russian fifth column in Europe, we will judge their almost criminal timidity.
How many more thousands of deaths will it take before we really decide to thwart Russian aggression and definitively dissuade it from pursuing its revisionist expansionism, which is endangering the whole of Europe?
Europe need have no fear of the programmed break-up of Russia, which would probably be accompanied by its only possible redemption: the fall of the Chekists who have seized power there.
Increasingly autocratic but also increasingly poor, internal unrest is spreading. Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Buryatia and many of the 89 "subjects" of the Russian Federation are moving away from Moscow because they can no longer feed the fantasies and demands for cannon fodder of the criminals in power. The country is growing poorer; the population is suffering from privatisation; repression has become almost Stalinist. The end is nigh. There is no need to fear it. There is no point in trying to slow it down from the outside. The end of the Soviet Union has already been achieved. So will the completion of the process.
The resilience, prudence and patience of Europeans are certainly assets in the face of this impending cataclysm, but they will not be enough, here or elsewhere.
How can we explain the fact that the threats to maritime traffic in the Red Sea have not prompted an immediate and strong reaction from the people who are primarily concerned, the Europeans? The European Union claims to protect the principle of freedom of navigation. But it is also the owner of the world's largest commercial fleet, with 70% of the world's freight transport capacity (and 60% of container ships), thanks in particular to its 4 carriers in the list of the world's 5 largest (MSC, Maersk, CMA-CGM, Hapag-Lloyd).
What use are the 400 European warships? Is the EU incapable of securing transit through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait? Why is it once again passing the buck to the United States? Will its geostrategic pretensions sink in the Red Sea? And what if, one day, the straits of Asia are blocked by Chinese military action?
Europe wants to be "geostrategic": the time has come!
Europeans can no longer allow Ukrainian civilians to perish under Russian missiles and the conflict to drag on for fear of an escalation that will never happen.
We cannot allow Iran and its stooges to hold world trade hostage, feed inflation and insecurity here at home, drain the resources of the Suez Canal, or risk seeing other straits - Hormuz, Malacca - subjected to the same blackmail.
Europe must assume global responsibilities to avoid the contagion of the Russian example, which has unleashed violence all over the planet and left thugs unfettered where they hope to exploit hitherto contained resentments.
Only determination, the threat of force and steadfastness can now guarantee European peace.
Europeans must show their determination to wage war on those who publicly declare themselves to be their enemies if they are to have any chance of avoiding one. Weakness would mean inevitable conflict. They must bury once and for all the days of empires, in which only Russia still believes. They must be prepared to wage war in order not to have to go to war.
From now on, as has unfortunately often been the case in our history, only the possibility of resorting to force can guarantee peace.
We need to call for a real revolution in Europe, which remains our best asset for peace, provided it wakes up.
