A Fight for Europe’s Future

The Continent must learn from the war in Ukraine that more than the fate of one country is at stake and it needs to be united to fend off Russian aggression. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied This handout picture posted on the Telegram account of the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 15, 2026 shows Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) shaking hands with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing. China’s President Xi met Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov in Beijing on April 15, Chinese state media said. (Photo by Handout / RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google More than Ukraine’s future is being fought for. Just as in the 1930s the Spanish civil war largely determined the fate not just of one country but an entire continent, Ukraine’s fate will determine Europe’s fate. The very future of the continent is at stake. The defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary led to an outbreak of backslapping in European capitals. While it should be celebrated, it should not be overstated. Orban was corrupt and inept. He inadvertently did Europe what may be a huge favor, provided, that is, they learn the lesson. He showed how weak Europe was to the threat of authoritarian rule. Ukraine, too, is teaching the continent a lesson that it is finding difficult to fully grasp; Europe must be united and prepared to fight to fend off the threat that Russia poses. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . Ideology does not drive Vladimir Putin. His driving force is self-aggrandizement as seen by his built-in climate-controlled wardrobes where suits, jumpers and watches cost thousands of euros apiece. The average monthly wage in Russia is about $860. His hold on office depends on a compliant military. The economy, even with higher oil prices, has been gutted by corruption and weakened by sanctions. We live in strange times. The leaders of Russia, the United States and China, depend, to various degrees, on either outright military success or the threat of deploying armed forces. Russia is stuffing its ill-trained soldiers into the meat grinder. Donald Trump is finding and revealing the limitations of US power in the Middle East. Xi Jinping in China is eyeing Taiwan but the Iran War has shown him that the use of air power alone is not enough to subdue an enemy. You can bomb the infrastructure, blow up key bridges and transport links and even take out power plants. But even with all this victory is not assured, as Iran has shown us. Boots on the ground are required. Other Topics of Interest Hungary’s New Leadership – More Moral Blindness and Manipulation? Will Budapest’s hypocrisy toward Ukraine and European values and solidarity be continued? China may have scrapped its one-child policy but many of the soldiers who would be sent to fight and die in Taiwan would be the only child. This comes at political price. Apart from the incredible grief for the family, the death of any soldier comes at a political cost. In a country with poor social welfare, elderly parents depend on their offspring to provide for them. Ukraine’s defiance against aggression is protecting Europe but that should not mean that leaders have secured the continent from aggression. “I want to wake up those who are living under illusions. Russia is preparing for further acts of aggression,” said Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk following the informal European Council meeting in Cyprus this month. There were many who thought this was too alarmist. With international headlines dominated by Iran the situation in Ukraine has been shoved off the front pages or the top stories of websites. Tusk’s warning should not be so quickly dispatched to the category of crying wolf. Nobody in the Trump administration has been crass enough to say Ukraine is a faraway country of which we know little. But their willingness to appease Putin does seem to fit too snugly, in the decaffeinated latte-sipping political cafes of Washington, into that mindset. Putin, as we know, has a track record and has achieved two remarkable military successes. Georgia and the Olympic war of 2008 is now largely conveniently forgotten in the west. That six-day war, and it was a brutal conflict, was never about South Ossetia or Abkhazia. It was primarily to ensure that use of the Black Sea port of Poti was never an option for an enlarged NATO and to keep Georgia under its thumb. Mission accomplished. I was in Georgia during those blisteringly hot August days. A Russian officer politely requested, at gunpoint, that I take shelter under a tank to escape, as he put it, the sun. I complied. Two hours later I was released. The roadblock where I had been stopped was a half hour’s drive from the key naval base of Poti. Crimea, let us not forget, was seized by Russia to little outcry. That was a faraway part of a then faraway country. Putin is not unhinged. He may lack an ideology, but he is cold and calculating. He knows the opposition to his actions in Europe is less than it should be. He thought it would be weak in Ukraine, but he was wrong. The great Czechoslovak dissident and statesman Vaclav Havel was always quick to remind journalists that central and Eastern Europe had incubated two world wars. He was deeply pessimistic of Russia’s intentions and Europe’s lack of fortitude. In his twilight years, when he had given up smoking, he used to regularly meet journalists in his office, part of a converted church crypt in Prague. He never tired of telling his trouser story to help portray the difference between communism and democracy. Under communism, when a man got up, he would say, he had one pair of pants to wear. Under capitalism, he had a choice. But what to wear? Would the weather be hot or cold? Would he be going somewhere smart? Would its color clash with his jacket or shoes? Was it fashionable or even comfortable? Very confusing, he’d say but even so, democracy was better to live under. He adroitly used humor to make his point. Once the laughter died down, he would then get to his life’s goal. Democracy always has to be fought for. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Tom Clifford is a veteran Irish journalist who has worked in the Far East.