청원서는 다음 주소로 보내주시기 바랍니다.
European Union
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine chose independence and democracy. In 1994, the Budapest memorandum was signed by the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, and France, guaranteeing Ukrainian independence and its territorial integrity. These assurances played a key role in Ukraine agreeing to give up its 1,900 strategic nuclear weapons, the third largest arsenal in the world. Vladimir Putin came to power on Dec 31st, 1999 and consolidated his power in the following years. Once he had ruthlessly eliminated any opposition and all remaining vestiges of democracy and civil society in Russia, he turned his focus to his imperialist dreams of a “Greater Russia” and began to interfere in the affairs of several former ex-Soviet states that bordered Russia. In the beginning it was the dark arts of spy craft, like attempting to assassinate by poisoning the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yuschenko in 2004. However much he tried, Putin could not extinguish the desire of Ukrainians for democracy and freedom and their desire to join the EU. In 2014 pro-Russian ex-President Yanukovych sought to move Ukraine away from EU direction and towards Russia, under pressure from Putin. This triggered the mass protests on Kiev\'s central Maidan square, where many Ukrainians lost their lives. Yanukovych had to flee the country. In response, Russia annexed parts of Ukraine: the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and parts of the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. On 24 February 2022, a day that will live in infamy in Europe, Russia invaded Ukraine from three directions, despite lying to the world for weeks about its intentions.
이유
Although the EU and Ukraine signed an EU Association agreement in 2017 that foresaw future economic and political cooperation, it has recently hesitated to welcome Ukraine as a member state due to its failed Russian appeasement politics. The EU has studiously avoided conflict with Putin whose goals should have been clear to all: to weaken the EU, rebuild a Russian Empire in Europe by annexing Ukraine and Belarus, and generally upset the post-Cold War security order in Europe and redraw maps and borders to his liking. A megalomania not seen in Europe since the era of Hitler and Stalin.
It should belatedly be clear by now, the Russian war on Ukraine is due to the failure of EU politics, and Ukrainians have been paying with their lives for the appeasement and empty promises of the West, since 2014.
Now, as never before, Ukraine needs an EU decision to accelerate process to become a EU member. By defending European and Western values and goals not only on paper, but with lives of Ukrainians, Ukraine has proven it deserves to be part of the family of nations inside the European Union.
The brave and heroic Ukrainian nation urgently needs this clear signal from EU to keep their fighting spirit against unprovoked aggression and keep defending European values, democracy and freedom in the whole Europe and the whole world.
