{"id":1330855,"date":"2025-12-09T20:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/never-again-again-why-europe-is-stepping-on-the-same-rake\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T04:56:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:56:51","slug":"never-again-again-why-europe-is-stepping-on-the-same-rake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/never-again-again-why-europe-is-stepping-on-the-same-rake\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s \u2018Never Again\u2019 Has an Expiration Date \u2014 Apparently, It\u2019s Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

We are now living a historical d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu \u2014 one that we clearly see, yet Europe stubbornly refuses to acknowledge. What\u2019s happening around Ukraine bears too strong a resemblance to the late 1930s, when the civilized world already stood with one foot over the abyss \u2014 and still convinced itself that Hitler \u201ccould be negotiated with,\u201d that he was a \u201crational actor,\u201d not a man who treated the map of Europe as a playground for experiments in aggression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, Czechoslovakia was the bargaining chip; today, it is Ukraine. The only difference is that there were no nuclear warheads then, and now there are, while no one is soberly calculating the cost of a mistake.<\/p>\n

In Munich in 1938, Hitler received exactly what he wanted: not only the Sudetenland, not merely a territory with mixed population and industry, but, above all, confirmation that the West was prepared to trade its allies for the illusion of peace. Czechoslovakia wasn\u2019t even invited to the table \u2014 just as no one today intends to ask Ukraine whether it accepts a \u201cpeace plan\u201d that envisions a permanent Russian military presence in the occupied territories and a frozen mine laid beneath any future.<\/p>\n

Back then, Chamberlain returned to London with a piece of paper bearing Hitler\u2019s signature and the phrase, \u201cI have brought you peace for our time.\u201d Today, the same Munich undertones can be heard in calls for \u201cstable relations with Russia,\u201d \u201cthe need to avoid escalation,\u201d and \u201cthe resumption of dialogue with Moscow\u201d \u2014 once again at someone else\u2019s expense, never at the expense of those reciting these comforting formulas.<\/p>\n

Europe loves to repeat the mantra \u201cnever again,\u201d but it invests the phrase with a meaning convenient for itself: never again a major war on its<\/em> territory. Not \u201cnever again appeasing a dictator,\u201d not \u201cnever again abandoning allies,\u201d not \u201cnever again trading away principles.\u201d And so, any attempt to call Russia what it is \u2014 an aggressive empire with a programme to destroy a neighbouring state \u2014 is dismissed as dangerous candour that might \u201cprovoke a Third World War.\u201d Meanwhile, any talk of compromise at Ukraine\u2019s expense is presented as prudence and responsibility.<\/p>\n\t\t