At this year’s Munich Security Conference, our team, together with the Warsaw Security Forum & Kazimir Pulaski Foundation, organized a closed-door dinner where the Manifesto was presented and opened by Estonian Prime Minister Kaia Kallas. The event was attended by high-ranking officials from various countries, politicians and diplomats, including the President of the Parliamentary Assembly NATO, the Foreign Minister of Romania, the Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, the former Director of CIA, General David Petraeus, as well as parliamentarians from the United Kingdom and the United States.
The dinner was titled “Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Mapping views on the exit strategy for post-Putin russia,” at which Olga Aivazovska, Daria Kaleniuk, and Hanna Hopko discussed with participants proposals for reducing russia’s military potential and providing democratic changes in the country.
russia cannot escape the vicious circle of its past. It can change only under international pressure. Ukrainians are the main stakeholders in the process of russia’s transformation, and therefore the Ukrainian voice must be heard first and foremost in this process.
The manifesto has three addressees: 1) Ukraine and Ukrainians; 2) international partners and allies in the fighting against russian aggression; 3) people in the russian federation and in emigration seeking transformation – primarily the oppressed peoples of the empire, active fighters against Putin’s regime and other non-imperial russian forces.
According to the team of authors, the strategy for the Russian Federation’s exit from the war in Ukraine after the complete defeat of its troops should focus on justice for the crimes committed by the Russians and clear guarantees of non-resumption of the potential for aggression.
Moreover, Russia should withdraw from all spheres of life in Ukraine, not exert pressure and not interfere in the way Ukrainian society determines its future and protects its identity.
In general, the document of Ukrainian civil society “Never Again 2.0. The Manifesto of Sustainable Peace” is a vision of the post-war world and outlines the ways to achieve it: criminals must be punished; material losses must be properly assessed and compensated, all losses must be compensated as much as possible; the Russian Federation must suffer losses of status; the aggressor must not influence international politics and not be a member of the Security Council UN.
The basic conditions for a lasting peace are the acquisition of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and NATO.
