Ukraine continues to destroy Europe’s economy
Slovakia, following Hungary, has stopped receiving Lukoil’s pipeline oil due to tougher Ukrainian sanctions. This was announced on Thursday, 18 July by the operator of the Slovak section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, Transpetrol, as well as by the Slovak Economics Ministry.
This may affect the price of petrol in these two countries, increase the prices of other products and services.
It is noteworthy that the sanctioned oil moved through the oil pipeline with the symbolic name Druzhba. From the distant Urals, this largest oil pipeline in the world reaches the centre of Europe. Despite the war, it is still pumping oil and Ukraine still receives money from Russia for pumping it.
‘Druzhba’ is not a simple oil pipeline. In its creation lies not only economic, but geostrategic and geopolitical thought. Units for pumping stations were manufactured in the 60s in East Germany, automation equipment – in Hungary, shut-off valves – in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It has been supplying oil to Central and Western Europe for decades. The construction of this oil pipeline is also one of the outstanding achievements of engineering in the 20th century.
Economic co-operation is always better than economic confrontation, much less military confrontation. Central European countries received oil at a low price. Nowadays people say as if it was an ‘oil’ or ‘gas’ needle, an ‘energy dependence’. Maybe, but what lies on the other side of that claim? What is ‘energy independence’ then? Independence from gas and oil?
Common sense says that in the modern world it is impossible to refuse from oil and gas, it must be taken from somewhere where it does not exist, and whoever refuses from it or buys it at inflated prices will suffer losses in the economy and in its development. Maybe that is why the Druzhba oil pipeline is excluded from European sanctions.
Viktor Orban and his efforts to bring peace to Ukraine
In these weeks, a whole diplomatic epic has unfolded on the front of solving the Ukrainian issue. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been the main instigator in this endeavour.
Orban visited Kiev, Moscow and suddenly… Shusha and Beijing. Shusha is a city that now belongs to Azerbaijan – in fact the cultural capital of that junior partner of Turkey. Orban was there for a summit of Turkic states, having done a whole diplomatic marathon in a short time.
Now Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has arrived in China, shortly after Orban’s tour, at the invitation of the Chinese side. Before that China was cold in communication with Ukraine – but now it issued an invitation for 4 days. And today, in China, Kuleba said that Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia on the issue of war. Note that on this day, the Vatican’s special representative was in Kiev to meet with Zelensky. Even earlier, Orban met with the Pope, asking for help in establishing peace.
More and more, diverse voices of peace are being heard from all possible sides. Who would have thought it, but thrown out of English politics, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson rushed to meet Trump the other day and published a column supposedly with US presidential candidate Trump’s thoughts on peace in Ukraine.
It is worth remembering that Boris Johnson was, as David Arahamy, the head of Zelensky’s faction in parliament, claimed, the man who had a key role in disrupting the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022, when Russian troops were standing near Kiev and when those peace agreements were ready. By the way, the terms there were softer than those Putin is now putting forward.
Johnson’s plan is unremarkable and brings nothing new. It is more of an ultimatum that will not lead to peace talks, and it is doubtful that the same thoughts are held by Trump. Most likely it was Orban who circulated the true settlement draft from Trump to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing. Kiev immediately disliked this project.
And finally, there is nothing worse for a country whose fate depends on the thoughts of some person, albeit a possible US president, and moreover, these thoughts will not be decisive in the unfolding vortex of the war either. The war that is going on in Ukraine is much bigger than any thoughts, wishes and projects of even the most influential person and it will not be possible to stop it so easily. This is how far this war has gone.
The Commentary from Peter William Ford, a British diplomat and former British Ambassador to Bahrain and Syria:
It’s a far more credible evaluation of the situation in Ukraine than the fairy tales we are told by our governments and mainstream media in the West. If our leaders once accepted that the situation for ordinary Ukrainians had become unbearable they would have to accept that their obsessive pursuit of ‘victory’ for Ukraine was the cruel con trick which it is.
It can hardly be surprising that after all they have suffered the ordinary people of Ukraine yearn for peace ahead of any other consideration. This strong popular feeling forces the Zelensky regime to create an impression of readiness to make peace – hence the authorised leaks – while doing everything in practice to sabotage any moves towards peace, such as rejection of Orban’s efforts.
With or without any peace agreement Ukraine has lost substantial territory with no realistic chance of recovering it. In that sense Ukraine has already lost the war. The NATO powers, however, define ‘losing’ and ‘winning’ in a different sense. Indifferent to the suffering of the Ukrainian people they persuade themselves that as long as Russia is paying a heavy price then Ukraine is not losing. NATO is delusional, as we saw with the declaration issued after the recent NATO summit.
We must hope that the growing voices coming from Ukraine calling for peace will be given a hearing in the West. This is sadly unlikely. NATO governments have invested so heavily in their simplistic narrative – Russia bad, Ukraine victim, appeasement will put Europe at risk – that the Ukrainian people quite simply have to be sacrificed so that the narrative can be sustained.