Over the past hundred years, Western civilization – the Free World – has faced repeated existential challenges from tyrannies that hated it, whatever ideological clothes they happened to wear. We prevailed every time, and alongside our clear intellectual and technological superiority, one condition of each victory was the inspiring role of leaders who rose to meet those challenges with courage and clarity.
In 1940, it was Churchill; in 1946, Churchill and Truman; in 1983, Reagan and Thatcher.
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Today, the enemies of freedom – united in an Axis of Evil of Russia, China, and Iran – have launched a Fourth World War, trying to take revenge for the Soviet Union’s defeat in the Third World War (the Cold War).
They were emboldened in this audacious move by a vacuum of leadership in the Oval Office. The emotional shock that preceded this Fourth World War was the spectacular scene of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The man who should be leading the Free World is instead undermining it and, in Ukraine, effectively siding with our enemies.
In recent days, a series of disparaging remarks about NATO from President Donald Trump amounted to a public renunciation of the alliance’s core security guarantee. Yes, countless generals and senior diplomats will continue their comfortable routines in well‑appointed headquarters in Brussels and Mons.
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But NATO has never been about buildings or even founding documents. The real strength that allowed this remarkable alliance to win the Cold War against the Soviet Union was the absolute trust of millions of Europeans in the security guarantees given by their partner across the ocean, and, just as importantly, the equal trust of our enemies that those guarantees would be honored.
The first reaction in Moscow and other capitals of the Axis of Evil was almost calf‑like euphoria on every propaganda channel. Commentators crowed that “the big white master has dissolved NATO and left Europe to be devoured” and fantasized that “once we reach Poland’s borders, the whole of Europe will be on its knees begging for mercy.” But those sweet daydreams are already starting to fade.
Yes, the current American president has done grave damage to NATO‑1 as a system of credible guarantees. Yet before our eyes, a different structure is taking shape: flexible, creative, and highly motivated: NATO‑2.0. We keep the “North Atlantic” in its name as a mark of gratitude to Canada, our most reliable ally.
In NATO‑1, Ukraine spent two decades in the humiliating position of a “candidate for candidacy,” even as for the last five years it has been the only country in the world actually carrying out the alliance’s founding mission: defending Europe from a Russian imperial onslaught.
In NATO‑2, Ukraine’s status is finally aligned with its historic role.
Ukraine is not just a full member of NATO‑2; it is the cornerstone of this emerging alliance, and its Armed Forces are the very European army NATO countries spent decades only talking about.
The second key pillar of NATO‑2 is a rapidly expanding ecosystem of joint ventures with Ukraine across Europe and beyond, producing weapons for Ukraine: drones, missiles, and more, shaped by its unique combat experience and often built on Ukrainian innovations.
NATO‑2.0 is an alliance without a charter, grand declarations, or even formal membership lists. Yet, it is working with growing effectiveness because Europeans have finally grasped the scale of the challenge posed by the forces of evil, and the unique role Ukraine plays in defeating that threat.
Today, comfortable “European Athens” understands that if the three hundred Ukrainian Spartans do not hold the line, then the war, carried by a drunken, criminal Russian mob intoxicated by its own impunity, will pour straight into their homes.
Paradoxically, Trump’s turn away has had one positive consequence: it forced a critical mass of European politicians to assume full responsibility for the fate of their continent, which today means the fate of Ukraine’s resistance.
In steadily growing volumes, Ukraine, the fighting army of NATO 2.0, is receiving every form of support short of regular troops: financing, modern weapons, advisers, trainers, and volunteers.
By now, the tune in Moscow has already changed.
As these lines are being written, the Russian news channels are howling with threats from top officials to destroy European cities that host joint defense enterprises with Ukraine, complete with lists and locations of dozens of such plants scattered across the continent. So be it. If, at the last moment, the “Zatulins” of this world fail to restrain the madman of Valdai, NATO 2.0 will have to bring in regular forces, above all its air power, and impose a no‑fly zone over all of Ukraine.
For us, the emotional prelude to the emergence of NATO 2.0 came in Budapest, where 70 years later, the slogan of the Hungarian insurgents once again rang through the streets: “Ruszkik haza!” – “Russians, go home.” That simple demand captures both the program of action and the very meaning of the Ukraine‑centered version of NATO 2.0.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.