Four years ago, through a series of short video selfies recorded on a mobile phone in darkened Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky won the media war against Vladimir Putin. Do you remember those short selfie messages from the Ukrainian president in camouflage? ‘We are here. Our government is here. The president is here. Our army is in position.’ Indeed, in those first days and nights of the invasion, Ukraine managed to repel Putin’s attempted coup and the establishment of a Russian puppet government that would return Ukraine to the ‘Russian World’, and in the following months, the Ukrainian army succeeded in halting the Russian invasion along lines that have, more or less, remained the lines of separation to this day. However, this exhausting Russo-Ukrainian war, with no significant shifts on the battlefield and many casualties, which can only be concluded through a compromise freezing of the conflict without a winner, has changed Europe and become a crucial agent in resetting the global order.
What Europe Has Learned
To begin with, it brought Europe (EU) down from the rosy bubble to reality, making it aware that it is completely neglected in defense and that energy monopolies (gas, oil) are also weapons. Today, arguments against strengthening European defense can still be heard, claiming that Russian President Putin is not interested in conquering Europe through war and joining it to the ‘Russian World’. True. But four years ago, had he truly wanted to, he could have perhaps reached Paris more easily with a tank column than Kyiv. But it was not necessary: Europe was vulnerable, it was enough to turn off the gas.
Today, however, it is much different: Europe has diversified its energy supply, started investing in its defense, and has learned something about the paradigm of the ‘Russian World’ (although it still has a problem recognizing its local franchise – the ‘Serbian World’), which eludes Western rational understanding of politics. Gradually, it is learning that modern wars are not only fought with divisions but also with ‘summer houses’ (and not just Russian ones) around strategic military facilities in Western countries… It has also learned something about the traps of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A series of Middle Eastern conflicts that began on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel can also be viewed as an attempt by Russia’s ally Iran to strengthen its presence and Eastern geopolitical dominance in the Middle East (Iran, Russia, China) with the help of its militias.
