Too gutless for peace: no one will say the war is failingA conversation with George Szamuely
European leaders talk about peace. They do not have the guts to pursue it. Meanwhile, Ukraine is being destroyed and will never join the EU. That was the thread running through my conversation with George Szamuely.
The Peacemonger is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. It remains a mystery how Zelensky has been a catastrophic leader for Ukraine and yet he is treated like the second coming of Christ in the capitals of Europe. Meanwhile, men, young, old, fit, fat, sharp-minded and mentally retarded, are dragged off the streets like dogs and sent to the meat grinder (I have another conversation with Marta Havryshko planned this week on busification). Elections have been consigned to the history books. The country is a bankrupt, shattered husk of its former self. And Zelensky remains in place because the European Union, NATO and Washington keep writing the cheques. George suggests that the only time Zelensky is in danger is when he looks as if he might talk to Moscow. Belligerence is rewarded while negotiation is treated as betrayal (on which, I hope readers noticed Donald Tusk’s comment that people celebrating an AfD victory in Saxony Anhalt are ‘idiots and traitors’). Hungary illustrates the same psychosis. Péter Magyar was sold as the man who could unlock the money Orbán could not get from Brussels - i.e. subsidies held back because Orban-era Hungary wasn’t liberal enough. George’s account from Budapest is that the promised Magyar windfall has still not arrived. Meanwhile Hungary is still being fined a million euros a day over asylum rules. The institutions Orbán built as an alternative to mainstream academia are being shut. Magyar parrots whatever von der Leyen or Kaja Kallas said that morning and calls it national interest. Nationalism, George argued, however, is advocating what is good for your own country. And the irony is that there is no serious case for bringing Ukraine or Moldova into the EU on the criteria applied to anyone else. The economic burden would fall on European taxpayers who are already poorer from the war and the economic self-harm of sanctions. Ukrainian agricultural produce would undercut farmers in Poland, Hungary, Romania and France. Indeed, Polish farmers came out in large numbers at the start of the Ukraine war to protest the sudden flood of cheap Ukrainian imports. There’s an interesting trade dynamic here: Ukrainian agri products have traditionally fed developing countries in Africa and elsewhere: Europe already produces more food than it needs because of subsidies. Anyone who believes that current agriculture heavy EU member states are going to give away their subsidies to Ukraine is simply deluded. The point was never membership. It was the Eastern Partnership logic from 2009: dangle a distant prospect in return for turning your back on Russia. Georgia got the same bargain and a one-way trade relationship. European goods poured in to Georgia after the DCFTA was signed by Georgia saw no increase in in exports to Europe on the back of a flurry of EU trade dispute procedures and other non-tariff barriers. Refuse to sanctions Russia and you are branded a Kremlin puppet and punished further. What Europe cannot do is fight the war it keeps encouraging on. It is energy-dependent and deindustrialised. It does not have the industrial base, the manpower or the political stomach. George’s conclusion is the one European leaders will not speak: the strategy is to keep the war going long enough to drag the United States into a shooting conflict with Russia. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski writes that there should be no talks until Russia is weakened, and that Europe can beat Moscow. Yet he does not offer Polish troops. It is always you first, guys. Germany used to understand this. It bought Soviet gas during the Cold War because it was in the national interest, and it resisted US pressure under the Reagan administration to do otherwise. It now pays three times the price out of spite and cannot explain why Ukraine’s eastern border is worth that sacrifice. Little wonder that AfD won in Saxony Anhalt. As I have been saying for quite some time, the shifting sands of domestic politics across Europe will, ultimately, end the war in Ukraine through an erosion of political support for the project. Until we reach that point, Von der Leyen talks about almost nothing else than Ukraine. Competitiveness, living standards, the industries Europe is losing: not on the agenda. Rulers who cannot fix the mundane prefer the world stage. (On this, it’s remarkable to me that Keir Starmer has resigned his parliamentary seat to focus on ‘world affairs’. What will he possibly do - bore other world leaders to death? Good heavens above.) No one in the respectable parties will say the Ukraine war is failing. Farage stuck his neck out a couple of years ago and was battered for it. Le Pen and Meloni have edged back towards the consensus. Until someone is prepared to challenge that consensus, Ukraine will be whipped on to die for a membership it will never receive. You can watch the full conversation here: Follow George at georgeszamuely.substack.com and on X - @GeorgeSzamuely .Wherever you are in the world, whatever your nationality and religion, I wish you much peace. You're currently a free subscriber to The Peacemonger. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2026 ian |