The new year 2025 brings many uncertainties yet much hope to Ukraine and Europe as we try to find a straightforward solution to a complex problem: how to end the big war. As Ukrainian public figures and intellectuals, we address the world leaders and the international community in order to share our perspectives on the forthcoming challenges and expectations.

Above all, we would like to emphasize that acquiring additional territories is not Russia’s primary objective in this war. It already has vast undeveloped territories, and when it seizes a new land, this land is systematically neglected. Similarly, the objective is not merely to bring Ukraine back under its control. This is only one of the intermediate goals. Russia’s ultimate aim is to break the current world order.

It seeks to regain its status of a superpower that acts arbitrarily and, by the right of the stronger, attacks neighbors, interferes in the affairs of other countries, commits terrorist acts, supports authoritarian regimes and illegally armed groups around the world.

None of this is an isolated incident, a whim of Putin, or a temporary “deviation from normalcy.” It is a part of a strategic design. This is why, three years ago, Putin issued an ultimatum to the United States and its allies in Europe, demanding a return to the 1997 disposition.

Ukraine, by reason of its history and geography, has become the next target on the way to realization of these revanchist intentions.

For Ukraine itself, this war is existential: it is a war for survival of the Ukrainian nation, society, and state. Ukrainian democratic and Russian authoritarian-imperial political visions are essentially mutually exclusive. That means that any ‘freezing’ of the conflict at this or that demarcation line will not lead either to a relief of tensions or to the establishment of sustainable peace.

For Russia, such a freeze would primarily signal the weakness of the West and encourage further aggression and wars that spill the blood of Europeans and Americans. Sustainable peace will come only when, under the combined pressure of Ukraine and its allies, Russia faces a systemic crisis and the defeat of Putin’s regime. As proven by history, tyrannies are fragile.

This war is not confined to Ukraine, nor can the ‘Ukrainian question’ be solved exclusively within the framework of Russian-Ukrainian relations. If the world leaders demand concessions of the territories and sovereignty from Ukraine without providing any effective security guarantees, they will essentially bring about Ukraine’s defeat, which will signal to China and other revisionists that they can seize what they want.

North Korean troops will appear in different hot spots. Piracy, blocking of trade routes, attacks on information systems and global communications will sabotage global trade.

Longstanding efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons will be reduced to naught. Russian media influence, cyberattacks, covert operations, and election interference in democratic countries will undermine the world order. And the possible fall of Ukraine would create a large wave of refugees and open the way for Putin to advance farther westward.

On the other hand, an effective end of Russian aggression against Ukraine could be a solution to many problems of the democratic world. Russia’s defeat in its war of aggression against Ukraine would reestablish the order based on rules and interdependence of responsible players. The security of global trade, global nuclear energy, and food security will be strengthened. Terrorist regimes and organizations around the world will lose Russian support and weaken.

Today, Ukraine is buying time for the democratic world to unite and strengthen. But this time is not limitless. The forces defending peace, freedom, and human dignity must go on the offensive. Ukraine and the entire democratic world can only win together or give in and lose together. The illusion of peace at the cost of shame has repeatedly brought on a new war.

The strength of a democracy is the ability to learn from past mistakes. Ukraine, too, has fought—and continues to fight—its way to democracy through trial and error. It is paying an exorbitant price along the way. Each and every one of us has relatives and friends that lost property, their health, or even their lives.

But we understand that the price of war will be even higher if our allies are seduced by the illusion of stopping the war without addressing its causes. And this is not only for Ukraine, but for the entire world. That is why we urge our partners to look for a way not to appease the aggressor, but to win together.

Evil cannot be appeased. It must be defeated and punished for the sake of a secure future of Ukraine, Europe, and the entire world.

January 5, 2025

Signatories.

Alim Aliev, deputy director general of the Ukrainian institute, founder of the “Crimean Fig” cultural project
Kostyantyn Batozskyy, political analyst
Yaryna Boychuk, CEO, UCU Business School
Mykhailo Gonchar, President of the CGS Strategy XXI, Chief Editor of the Black Sea Security Journal
Hanna Hopko, Network “ANTS”, member of the Parliament of Ukraine and chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs committee (2014-2019)
Volodymyr Horbach, Executive Director of Institute for Northern Eurasia Transformation
Yaroslav Hrytsak, professor, Ukrainian Catholic University
Ihor Koliushko, Centre for Policy and Legal Reform, Head of the Board, former member of the Parliament of Ukraine
Serhii Koshman, civil society activist
Oleksii Kovzhun, media analyst and political consultant
Nataliia Kryvda, PhD, professor of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Head of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation
Oleksandr Novikov, Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (2020-2024), preacher of the integrity and human-centred management system OKR
Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director, “Mystetskyi Arsenal” National Art and Culture Museum Complex
Bohdan Pankevych, co-founder, member of the Board of the Ukrainian Galician party
Oleksiy Panych, Professor of Philosophy, Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary
Valerii Pekar, adjunct professor of Kyiv-Mohyla and UCU Business schools, chairman of the board of Decolonization NGO
Roman Rak, Senior Resident Fellow at Frontier Institute, Editor-in-Chief of NZL Media (TUM)
Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, member of the Parliament of Ukraine
Olena Sotnyk, human rights lawyer and public figure, member of the Parliament of Ukraine (8th convocation)
Taras Stetskiv, politician and public figure, member of the Parliament of Ukraine (1st-4th and 6th convocations)
Oleksandr Sushko, Executive Director, International Renaissance Foundation
Victoria Voytsitska, member of the Parliament of Ukraine (8th convocation), ranking member of the Energy Committee, Advocacy Director of ICUV
Mykola Vyhovskyy, civil activist
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Head of the Committee on Freedom of Speech
Olga Aivazovska, Chairperson, Civil Network OPORA
Andrii Dligach, Dr. Econ., founder, Advanter Group, Kyiv Foresight Foundation
Orest Drul, editor
Dr. Oksana Gudzovata, professor of UCU Business School
Yevhen Hlibovytsky, general director, Frontier Institute
Valeriia Kozlova, associate professor, UCU Business School
Myroslav Marynovych, former prisoner of conscience (1977-1987)
Oleksandra Matviichuk, human rights lawyer, head of the Center for Civil Liberties
Sofiya Opatska, Founding Dean, Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University
Svyatoslav Pavlyuk, Executive Director, Association Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine