“EU and NATO will deliver on what was promised to Ukraine”, says former NATO secretary-general

“The European Union and NATO will deliver on what was promised to Ukraine”, said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former NATO secretary-general, at the Friends of Europe event launch of the Ukraine Initiative. De Hoop Scheffer, member of the High-Level Steering Group of the Ukraine Initiative, recalled that Ukraine is now a candidate member of the EU and, as for the military alliance, “there will be another NATO summit at the beginning of July and we should take our promises and commitments seriously”.

Friends of Europe launched the Ukraine Initiative on 14 February with the event “Heartfelt Narratives: strengthening support for Ukraine”. Ukraine’s independent future requires more than debates over military supplies. It requires a sustained campaign of multi-level engagement from the grassroots to board rooms. This is why Friends of Europe is putting together a robust coalition of influential partners and advocates to counter the “fatigue narrative”. “We have a huge job to do in convincing politicians to go on and fight their fatigue”, said de Hoop Scheffer.

The initiative is being led by a High-Level Steering Group comprising senior political, business, civil society and military leaders from the US and Europe (including Ukraine). Dalia Grybauskaitė, former president of Lithuania and a member of the Steering Group, explained that “our goal with this Ukraine Initiative is to persuade, to rally support and to influence as much as possible to support Ukraine” and commended the “heroism and sacrifice of Ukrainians which is practically unbelievable”.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and also a member of the Steering Group, told the difference between helping Ukraine “not to fail” and helping Ukraine to “win fast”. “We can practically measure these differences in types of weapons, speed of decisions, gravity of sanctions. We have no time. For us time [means] numerous deaths in battlefields and occupied territories.”

During the event, participants also heard the stories of four Ukrainian women. Olha Tsaruk, a teacher from the Poltava Region, recalled how she had to leave Kharkiv when the invasion started and how she had “the taste of guilt”. “I left on the first day because I’m the mother of three children and I have to think about them.” She spoke about her students who were “dreaming about graduation”. “My students were inspired by Europe and were dreaming of travelling but not of acquiring refugee status. They want to live in their native land. I want to live in my land.”

Maryna Ovcharenko, a university student from Kharkiv, said: “We are the only obstacle between you and a terrorist country. We need your help, your weapons and we will fight.”

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