Kyiv's independence and that of the West.

Twenty-two years ago, while in Moscow the coup plotters were trying to turn back the hands of the clock that Gorbachev in his own way had put back in step with history, Ukraine in a bold gesture declared its independence. Five days later the statues of the so-called communist heroes were taken down and the central square was no longer dedicated to commemorate the October Revolution. It was called Majdan Nezaleznosti, Independence Square. No one would have imagined that 22 years later the Ukrainian people would be called upon to fight to defend their independence again. But this time its struggle has a broader historical significance. Not only is the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a state at stake in Ukraine today, but also the future of the West. This is not realized by those cheering for Putin to whom the West is convenient for exercising those freedoms that regimes like Russia do not allow and repress. Well beware of such people going to seek their fortunes under autocracies. It is not that they are dumb. They are just in bad faith.

However, those who do not agree with Russian aggression against Ukraine but think that, all things considered, this is a problem that should not concern us more than that: after all, we have helped them, we will give them a hand in rebuilding their country, but now enough of this war.

As if Ukrainians were happy to continue fighting to see their homes, schools, hospitals, theaters treated as military targets. As if it suits them to spend nights in shelters perhaps without light and water and risking freezing to death in the freezing continental winters. Those in our parts who talk lightly about peace ignore that if there is anyone who would like peace right away those are the citizens of Ukraine who suffer war but have no other alternative to defend their country. If the Ukrainians surrendered as some of our pacifists have been wishing since February last year, this would mean that Russia's bullying would prevail over international law. Putin would feel empowered to take over the whole of Ukraine and prepare more aggression at a moment's notice: the West does not react anyway. In fact, we did not react when he took Crimea or after he sowed death in the territories of Georgia and made massacres in Chechnya. The quiet life of the West depends on the resistance of the Ukrainian people. If it ceased Putin's tanks and then nuclear warheads would reach the borders of Poland, Romania, the heart of Europe. Would the world be calmer in this scenario? Or would the risks of all-out war on our Continent not increase disproportionately? Nationalist dictators never joke and sometimes they are even sincere. Hitler was when in Mein Kampf he laid out the strategy he later tried to implement. Putin has made it clear that he wants to restore the old Soviet Union of which many countries that are now members of the European Union and NATO were part. To give him Ukraine would be to agree with him and authorize him to continue in his crazy strategy. 

The Ukrainian people are resisting and fighting for their independence and also for that of the West, which is threatened by Putin nationalism and the coalition of non-democratic forces that China is trying to build precisely to impose its hegemony and its model of communist capitalism.

That is also why we stand by them and appreciate the government led by Giorgia Meloni not backing down an inch on the choice to help Ukraine and let Kyiv decide what peace it can accept. Meloni, Tajani and Crosetto are behaving in an exemplary manner. Despite some pressures to the contrary coming from within the majority.