Arming Ukraine: Open letter to Jo Biden

Auf Deutsch en Français in Italiano українською мовою

Open letter to Joseph Biden, President of the United States of America

The Lithuania Tribune, 13 December 2023, VoxEurop, 22 December 2023

Mr. President,

We would like to thank you for making it possible, with the invaluable support of the Netherlands and Denmark, for the first F-16s to be deployed in Ukraine in the near future. We hope that this heralds the formation of an air force of 200 to 300 aircraft which will allow Ukraine to effectively defend its airspace.

Without indulging in pessimism or defeatism, it seems the enemy Ukraine faces today has learned from its initial military mistakes, revitalised its military-industrial complex and mastered new types of armament. Russia has also been able to find new sources of arms supplies from some of its allies. From this point of view, Iran’s delivery of glide bombs and the likely supply of medium-range missiles are particularly worrying.

We are writing to you as president of the leading country in the Ramstein coalition to ask you to lift the restrictions on the use of weapons supplied by your country, and to call on the coalition member countries to do likewise, so that the Ukrainian army can neutralise military structures and equipment, ammunition and fuel depots, and military production facilities deep inside enemy territory.

Furthermore, the failure of certain European and American companies to comply with the embargo on the supply of military or dual-use technologies to Russia is in our view particularly serious. It requires a very firm response, which could consist of the creation within NATO of a structure modelled on the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) of the Cold War. The committee would be responsible for ensuring full compliance with the ban on the export of any sensitive technology to countries representing a real or potential threat to the free world. In addition to Russia, these include the People’s Republic of China, Iran, North Korea and Belarus.

Mr. President, without a much stronger mobilisation than we have seen so far, neither Ukraine, nor all the countries in the coalition, will be able to win this war. Without a shift to a war economy on the part of all Western countries, and the increase in arms procurement that this implies, Moscow’s strategy of buying time and banking on the fatigue of governments and public opinion is likely to pay off. We cannot allow that to happen.

Highest regards,

Signatories

Filippos Andrianos, commodore (ret.), Hellenic Navy, Greece

Vincenzo Camporini, general (ret.), former Chief of Defence, Italy

Vincent Desportes, general (ret.), former director of the Centre for Doctrine and Use of Forces (CDEF), associated professor at Sciences Po, France

Vicente Díaz de Villegas y Herrería, general (ret.), Spanish Army, security and defence analyst, Spain

Eric S. Edelman, ambassador (ret.), former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, 2005-2009, USA

Gert-Johannes Hagemann, major general (ret.), German Army, Berlin, Germany

Willy Herteleer, admiral (ret.), ex Belgian Chief of Defence

Ben Hodges, lieutenant general (ret), former Commander of the US Army in Europe, USA

Anton Hofreiter, Chairman of the Committee on European Union Affairs of the Bundestag, Germany

Heribert Hupka, brigadier general (ret.), German Army, Wachtberg, Germany

Sandra Kalnieté, member of the European Parliament, former EU Commissioner, former Foreign Affairs minister, Latvia

Roderich Kiesewetter, member of the Bundestag, representative of Foreign Affairs for the CDU/CSU-caucus, Germany

David J. Kramer, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights & Labor

Andrius Kubilius, member of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister of Lithuania

Vytautas Landsbergis, former President of the Republic of Lithuania

Pandeli Majko, former Prime Minister of Albania

Jean Paul Perruche, general (ret.), former director general of the European Union Military Staff, France

Paolo Puri, general (ret.), former military advisor to the Prime Minister of Italy

Marc Thys, lieutenant-general (ret.), former Vice Chief of Defense, Belgium

Pekka Toveri, major general (ret.), member of Parliament, Finland

&

Gian Paolo Accardo, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Voxeurop, Belgium/France

Jean-Marc Adolphe, journalist, director of leshumanites-media.com, France

Cengiz Aktar, professor of political science at the University of Athens

Guillaume Ancel, lieutenant-colonel (ret.), writer, essayist, author of the Blog Ne Pas Subir, France

Martin Andler, mathematician, professor emeritus, University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France

Antoine Arjakovsky, director of research, Collège des Bernardins, France

Bill Ashcroft, emeritus professor, University of New South Wales, Australia

Nicolas Auzanneau, translator, France/Belgium

François Bafoil, emeritus director of research, CNRS, senior research fellow, CNRS, France

Pierre Bayard, professor emeritus at the University of Paris 8, France

Martine Benoit, professor of Germanic Studies, University of Lille, France

Gérard Bensussan, philosopher, professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg, France

Marc P. Berenson, associate professor, School of Politics and Economics, King’s College London, UK

Olga Bertelsen, associate professor of Global Security and Intelligence, Tiffin University, USA

Sophie Bilderling-Shihab, Journaliste, ancienne correspondante du Monde à Moscou, France

Annick Bilobran-Karmazyn, president of ADVULE, France

Marie-Aline Bloch, honorary professor at the Ecole des Hautes Études de santé publique, France

Vassilios Bogiatzis, research and teaching associate, Panteion University, Athens, Greece

Etienne Boillet, senior lecturer in Italian Studies, University of Poitiers, France

Vincent Bouchard, associate professor of Francophone Studies, Indiana University, USA

Pierre Bouchat, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Lorraine, France

Jean-Loup Bourget, emeritus professor of film studies, Ecole normale supérieure, France

John Bowis, former member of the European Parliament and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Peter Bowness, member of the United Kingdom House of Lords

Alberto Bramati, associate professor, French Linguistics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Emil Brix, ambassador, director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria

Giovanna Brogi, emeritus professor, Milan University, Italy

Elmar Brok, former chairman of the Committe on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, former President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), Germany

Michel Caillouët, former ambassador of the European Union, France

Marco Cappato, former member of the European Parliament, Italy

Paulo Casaca, former member of the Portuguese Parliament and of the European Parliament

Giovanni Catelli, writer, poet, Eastjournal correspondent, Italy

Leo M. Chalupa, neuroscientist, professor, School of Medicine, George Washington University, USA

Ralph S. Clem, emeritus professor and senior fellow, Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, USA

Daniel Coche, writer-director-producer, former lecturer at the University of Strasbourg, France

Dominique Colas, professor emeritus of Political Science, Sciences Po, Paris, France

Michel Collot, professor of French Literature at the University of Paris III, France

Georges Dallemagne, member of Parliament, Belgium

Christophe D’Aloisio, researcher affiliated to the Research Institute Religions, Spiritualities, Cultures, Societies (RSCS, UCLouvain), Belgium

Pierre d’Argent, professor of International Law, University of Louvain, member of the Institute of International Law, Belgium

Francesco D’Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute of Strategic Studies

Louis Daubresse, associate researcher at the Institut de Recherche sur le Cinéma et l’Audiovisuel, France

Julia David, associate member of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History (CNRS/ENS), France

Franziska Davies, fellow at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) Potsdam, Germany

Franco Debenedetti, entrepreneur, essayist, former senator, Italy

Costantino De Blasi, economist, founder of Liberi Oltre le Illusioni (Free Beyond Illusions), Italy

Isabelle de Mecquenem, philosophy teacher and member of the Conseil des sages de laïcité of the French Ministry of Education

Mark Demesmaeker, senator, chair of the Committee of Transversal Affairs, Belgium

Sébastien Denis, professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, France

Christian Dietrich, former member of the Anti-Communist Resistance in Germany, Protestant pastor, Erfurt, Germany

Martin Dietze, journalist, president of the German-Ukrainian Cultural Association (Deutsch-Ukrainischer Kulturverein e.V.)

Massimiliano Di Pasquale, research associate at the Gino Germani Institute of Social Sciences and Strategic Studies and Head of the Ukraine Observatory (Rome), Italy

Iryna Dmytrychyn, historian, translator and lecturer at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco), specialist in Ukraine, France

Oleksandra Domagalo-Jacquemin, deputy chairwoman of the Association of Ukrainian Women in Belgium

Françoise Dubor, professor of literature and theatre studies at the University of Poitiers, France

Jean-Bernard Dupont-Melnyczenko, professor of history, honorary dean of the College of IA IPRs of the Académie d’Amiens, France

Olivier Dupuis, former member of the European Parliament, Belgium

Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe (IPSE), France

Marc Elie, research fellow at the CNRS, deputy director of the Center for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies – Cercec, France

Ants Erm, marine scientist, former member of Parliament, Estonia

Thomas Erndl, member of the Bundestag, Germany

Nino Evgenidze, executive director at the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), Georgia

Martin Exner, member of Parliament, Czech Republic

Penelope Faulkner, vice-president of Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, France

Andrej Findor, associate professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Claude Forest, professor emeritus, University of Strasbourg, France

Jean-Louis Fournel, professor at the University of Paris 8, France

Nicolas Franckx, translator, lecturer in Russian, faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Alexandre François, CNRS scholar in linguistics, France

Vanessa Frangville, professor in Chinese studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium

Natalia Gamalova, professor of Russian Language and Literature, Department of Slavic Studies, University of Lyon 3, France

Xavier Galmiche, professor of Central European Studies at the Slavic Studies Department of the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne, France

Lycina Gebert, professor of Slavic Linguistics, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Vitaliano Gemelli, former member of the European Parliament, Italy

Mridula Ghosh, senior lecturer, Department of International Relations, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine

Oscar Giannino, journalist and politician, Italy

Sébastien Gobert, journalist, France/Ukraine

Paul Goble, analyst, specialist on the Peoples of the Former Soviet Space, USA

Wojciech Górecki, senior fellow at OSW (Centre for Eastern Studies), Warsaw, Poland

Svetlana Gorshenina, historian, art historian, historiographer and specialist on Central Asia, director of research at CNRS Eur’Orbem, Université Paris-Sorbonne, France

Andrea Graziosi, professor of Contemporary History, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Paul Grod, president, Ukrainian World Congress, USA

Jaroslaw Gryz, professor, Faculty of Security, War Studies University, Warsaw, Poland

Jean-Yves Guérin, professor of French literature at the Sorbonne nouvelle University, France

Raphaëlle Guidée, senior lecturer, IUF / University of Poitiers, France

Mark Harrison, emeritus professor of Economics, University of Warwick, UK

Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs (AMO), Czech Republic

Richard Herzinger, columnist, Berlin, Germany

Gerold Hildebrand, social scientist, former member of oppositional Environmental Library in East-Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Sophie Hohmann, senior lecturer, Inalco, Paris, France

Krystyna Jaworska, professor of Polish Language and Literature, University of Turin, Italy

Luba Jurgenson, writer, translator, professor of Russian literature at the Université Paris-Sorbonne, France

Christian Kaunert, professor of International Security Policy, Dublin City University and University of South Wales

Ian Kelly, former U.S. ambassador to the OSCE and to Georgia

Anita Khachaturova, doctoral researcher in political science, Cevipol, ULB, Belgium

André Klarsfeld, professor (ret.) of physiology at ESPCI Paris-Université PSL, vice-chairman of “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre !”, France

Markus Koob, member of the Bundestag, Germany

Andrey Kovatchev, member of the European Parliament, Bulgaria

Oksana Kozlova, lecturer in Russian, faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Robert S. Kravchuk, emeritus professor, Indiana University, USA

Eerik-Niiles Kross, member of Parliament, former director of intelligence, Estonia

Batu Kutelia, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, former ambassador to the US, Georgia

Taras Kuzio, professor of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Ukraine

Bertrand Lambolez, professor of Neuroscience, director of research INSERM, vice-President of the NPO “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur Liberté et la Nôtre”, France

Pierre Larrouturou, member of the European Parliament, France

Marius Laurinavičius, senior analyst with the Vilnius-based Eastern Europe Studies Centre, Lithuania

Gérard Lauton, honorary senior lecturer, applied mathematics, Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), France

Aurélie Ledoux, senior lecturer, University of Paris Nanterre, France

Atis Lejins, former member of Parliament, founder of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, Latvia

Nathalie Lemaire, lecturer, School of Translation and Interpreting ISTI-Cooremans ULB, Belgium

Mathieu Lericq, researcher in Film Studies, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, France

Françoise Létoublon, emeritus professor, UGA, Grenoble, France

Sylvie Lindeperg, professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and emeritus member of the Institut Universitaire de France

Julian Lindley-French, analyst, senior fellow, Institute of Statecraft, chairman of The Alphen Group (TAG), Netherlands

Jonathan Littell, writer, Prix Goncourt, France

Mihhail Lotman, emeritus professor, Tallinn University, former member of Parliament, Estonia

Frédérique Longuet Marx, anthropologist research associate at Cetobac, France

Lubomyr Luciuk, professor, Department of Political Science and Economics, Royal Military College of Canada

Benoît Lutgen, member of the European Parliament, Belgium

Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director, Russia and Eurasia, head of the Ukraine Forum, Chatham House, UK

Jaak Madison, member of the European Parliament, Estonia

Aušra Maldeikienė, member of the European Parliament, Lithuania

Matas Maldeikis, member of Parliament, Lithuania

Damien Marguet, associate professor, co-head of Film Studies Department, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, France

Luigi Marinelli, professor of literature, Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies, ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy

André Markowicz, writer, translator, France

Eric Marty, writer and professor emeritus, University of Paris, France

Myroslav Marynovych, vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, former prisoner of conscience (1977-1987), Ukraine

Alain Maskens, physician, oncologist, founder and former medical coordinator of the European Organization for Cooperation in Cancer Prevention Studies (ECP), Belgium

Marie-Claude Maurel, director of Studies at EHESS, Centre d’études russe, caucasien et centre-européen, France

Rachel Mazuy, Associate researcher at the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent, lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, France

Michael McFaul, professor of Political Science, director of Freeman Spogli Institute, Hoover senior fellow at Stanford University, former Ambassador to Russia, USA

Alvydas Medalinskas, political analyst, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament

Stefan Meister, head of the Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany

Alexandre Melnik, professor at ICN Business School, expert and consultant in geopolitics, France

Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, professor emeritus, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Liège, Belgium

Wojciech Michnik, assistant professor of International Relations and Security Studies, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Marko Mihkelson, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Estonia

Nona Mikhelidze, senior fellow, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Rome, Italy

Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, professor of history and geography and researcher at the Institut Français de Géopolitique (University of Paris VIII), France

Emmanuel Morucci, doctor in sociology, chairman of CECI, France

Alexander Motyl, professor of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark, USA

Véronique Nahoum-Grappe, anthropologist, researcher at EHESS, Centre Edgar Morin, France

Boris Najman, associate professor and researcher in Economics at University Paris East Créteil, France

Olevs Nikers, president of the Baltic Security Foundation, Latvia

Elena A. Nikulina, analyst of Ukrainian/Russian affairs, Ukraine/Germany

Alvydas Nikžentaitis, senior research fellow of the Lithuanian Institute of History, president of Lithuanian National Historians Committee

Lydia Obolensky, professor of Russian Language and Literature, Belgium

Michal Onderco, professor of International Relations at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands

Ong Thong Hoeung, writer, survivor of the Khmer Rouge re-education camps, Belgium/Cambodia

Natalia Ostach, president of the Union of Ukrainian Women in Belgium

Zaneta Ozolina, professor, director at the Centre for International Politics, University of Latvia

Doris Pack, president of EPP Women, president of the Robert Schuman Institute, former member of the European Parliament and the Bundestag, Germany

Carmelo Palma, journalist, director of Strade-on-line, Italy

Filipe Papança, professor at the Military Academy (Amadora), Portugal

Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, professor of International Relations, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Italy

Žygimantas Pavilionis, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament

Anne-Marie Pelletier, emeritus professor of Literature, Université Gustave Eiffel, France

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, professor of Jewish Studies and History, Northwestern University, fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, USA

Jan Pieklo, Polish ambassador to Ukraine (2016-2019)

Steven Pinker, professor, Cognitive Psychology, Harvard University, USA

Antony Polonsky, emeritus professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University, USA

Elena Poptodorova, vice president of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, former Ambassador to the US, former member of Parliament

Jean-Yves Pranchère, professor of Political Theory, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Bohdan Prots, associate professor, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine

Jean-Paul Pylypczuk, director of the publication « La parole ukrainienne », France

Laura Quercioli Mincer, professor of Polish Literature, University of Genoa, Italy

Eva Quistorp, theologian, political scientist and writer, former member of the European Parliament, Germany

Utz Rachowski, poet and former East German political prisoner, Germany

Nadège Ragaru, historian and political scientist, director of research at Sciences Po (CERI-CNRS), professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, France

Pierre Raiman, historian, secretary of the NPO “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre”, France

Yasha Reibman, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Italy

Frédérique Ries, member of the European Parliament, Belgium

Christian Rocca, Linkiesta editorial director, Italy

Sylvie Rollet, emeritus professor, chairwoman of the NPO “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre”

Avital Ronell, professor of German and Comparative Literature, New York University, USA

Bronis Ropė, member of the European Parliament, Lithuania

Dovilė Šakalienė, member of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament, Lithuania

Marie-Claude San Juan, author and columnist, France

Andrei Sannikov, chairman of the European Belarus Foundation, former deputy foreign Minister, former prisoner of consciousness, Belarus

Ulrich Schmölcke, senior researcher at the ZBSA, Schleswig, Germany

Dominique Schnapper, director of Studies, EHESS, Honorary Member of the Constitutional Council, France

Perrine Simon-Nahum, professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, director of research at the CNRS, France

Myroslav Shkandrij, professor of Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba, Canada

Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, member of Parliament, Netherlands

Michael Sohlman, Swedish economist, former Chair of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), executive director of the Nobel Foundation, Sweden

Roman Solchanyk, former senior analyst, RFE/RL Research Institute (Munich) and RAND Corp., Santa Monica, California, USA

George Soroka, lecturer on Government and assistant director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University, USA

Paul Bernd Spahn, emeritus professor of economics, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Reinier Speelman, member of Icon, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Ivan Štefanec, member of the European Parliament, Slovakia

Raúl Suevos, colonel (ret), former director of communication at the Eurocorps and former commander of the multinational HQ Battalion of Eurocorps, Spain

Martin Svárovský, advisor to the deputy speaker of the Czech Parliament and Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs, Czech Republic

Marcin Święcicki, former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, former Mayor of Warsaw, Poland

Malgorzata Smorag-Goldberg, professor of Polish Studies at the Slavic Studies Department of Sorbonne Université, France

Wally Struys, professor emeritus, defence economist, Royal Military Academy, Belgium

Maxim Tarnawsky, professor, University of Toronto, Canada

Catalin Tenita, member of Parliament, Romania

Françoise Thom, historian and sovietologist, honorary lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, France

Astrid Thors, former Minister for Migration and European Affairs, former Member of the European Parliament, Finland

Bela Tsipuria, professor of Comparative Literature at Ilia State University, Deputy Minister of Education and Sciences, Georgia

Andreas Umland, analyst, Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies

Cécile Vaissié, professor of Russian and Soviet Studies, University of Rennes 2, France

Sophie Vanhoonacker, professor, Maastricht University, Netherlands

Marguerite Vappereau, lecturer and researcher in Film Studies, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, France

Maïrbek Vatchagaev, Chechen historian and political analyst of the North Caucasus at the Jamestown Foundation, co-editor of the journal “Caucasus Survey”

Olivier Védrine, professor, journalist, member of the Board of Jean Monnet association, France

Giovanni Vernetti, former Senator, former Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Italy

Guido Vitiello, writer, columnist, associate professor of Cinema and Visual Culture at La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

Hugo von Essen, analyst, Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies

Anna Wieslander, chair of the Board, Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm, Sweden

Paul Zawadzki, senior lecturer in Political Science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

Miroslav Žiak, former member of Parliament, Slovakia

Emanuelis Zingeris, member of Parliament, Lithuania

Othar Zourabichvili, president of the Georgian Association in France

 

Signatures received after publication of the Open Letter

Vera Ammer, Memorial, Deutschland

Martin Böttger, Bürgerrechtsaktivist, Stadtrat in Zwickau, Deutschland

Lorenzo Ceva Valla, photographer and director, Italy

Waleria Radziejowska-Hahn, member of the advisory board of Lew Kopelew Forum in Cologne, Germany