Closing Keynote on Ukraine by Eugene Czolij – Montreal International Security Summit 2025

Eugene Czolij is President of the NGO “Ukraine-2050”, the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Montreal and the former President of the Ukrainian World Congress (2008-2018)

Dear organizers, dear panelists, dear participants at the Montreal International Security Summit,

Il me fait grand plaisir de pouvoir remercier le   Centre Montréalais pour la Sécurité Globale et, plus particulièrement, son   cofondateur et directeur général, Kyle Matthews, d’avoir organisé, avec ses partenaires, dont Konrad Adenauer Stiftung et le Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal, un impressionnant Sommet de Montréal sur la sécurité internationale. Mes remerciements s’adressent aussi à tous les panélistes, qui ont grandement contribué au succès de cet évènement.

Sachant par ailleurs que nous avons plusieurs participants d’autres pays qui maîtrisent mieux la langue de Shakespeare que celle de Molière, je vais continuer mes propos en anglais.

I am very honoured and privileged to be addressing you as the Honorary Consul of Ukraine, whose people are currently heroically defending, not only their independence and Europe’s territorial integrity, but also democracy and global security – when taking into account NATO’s famous article 5.

Yesterday, during the opening remarks of this Summit, we heard a very important call to action, namely that it is time to act, not to announce, but to act. And we really should act, after everything that was said since then during this high-level Montreal International Security Summit.

The biggest current threat to our democracy and global security stems from the Kremlin and its clear intent to recreate a neo-Soviet Union, which – unstopped – will inevitably lead to World War III.

Indeed, prior to starting its genocidal war against Ukraine, Russia proposed to NATO and the U.S. divisive Yalta-style “security” agreements, which provided for the withdrawal of NATO troops and armaments from 14 out of 32 NATO member countries with the clear intent to destabilize the West, dismantle NATO, re‑establish a Russian sphere of influence on the territories of the former Eastern Bloc countries and then – reconquer them, which would trigger another World War.

Russia’s recent violations of the airspace of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Romania – all NATO member countries – are definitely not accidents. They are reminders of Russia’s expansionist ambitions that go substantially beyond Ukraine.

We basically have two options.

The first option is to appease another belligerent and authoritarian dictator like Hitler, currently in the Kremlin, with a neo-Munich Agreement that would sacrifice some Ukrainian territories and, even worse, the Ukrainian people, while emboldening Russia to want much more and eventually triggering another World War.

The other – and substantially better option – is to help Ukraine, not only demonstrate that Russia is not a superpower, which Ukraine has already done, but to ensure that Ukraine actually succeeds and, with the active help of NATO member countries, forces Russia into a real and long-lasting peace agreement with appropriate Western guarantees, including Ukraine’s membership in NATO.

Recent meetings in Alaska and Washington have clearly demonstrated that Ukraine wants peace and Russia wants Ukraine. Moreover, if Russia stops fighting there is no more war, but if Ukraine stops fighting there is no more Ukraine, with former Eastern Bloc countries in NATO being next in line.

Let’s remember the lessons of history that appeasing an authoritarian leader with imperialist ambitions is not de‑escalating, it is escalating the conflict by emboldening an aggressor that perceives any form of appeasement as a sign of weakness that should be fully exploited.

Peace through strength is the only language that the Kremlin understands and respects.

Thus, NATO member countries, starting with the U.S., should provide Ukraine the necessary military intelligence and weapons to succeed, including Tomahawk missiles to help Ukraine’s Armed Forces strike military targets and energy facilities deep inside Russia that feed its war machine.

Moreover, Western countries should stop procrastinating and do the only moral, fair, economically sound and geopolitically appropriate move by confiscating Russia’s Central Bank frozen assets abroad, evaluated at over 300 billion U.S. dollars and using them to provide military aid to Ukraine and then to rebuild Ukraine. It is hard to fully understand why Western leaders are not applying basic logic and common sense, which dictates that Russia’s state assets should be used to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and then to indemnify Ukraine for Russia’s war crimes.

Finally, Western countries need to strengthen sanctions against Russia and eliminate loopholes until they force Russia to the negotiation table.

We probably all agree that such moves would be beneficial for Ukraine, and what I wish to conclude with – is to state unequivocally – that such moves would be equally beneficial for democracy and global security.

The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) “Ukraine-2050” is a non-profit organization established to help implement, within one generation – by 2050 – strategies for the sustainable development of Ukraine as a fully independent, territorially integral, democratic, reformed and economically competitive European state.