Ukrainians cannot defend European democracy on their own, which is turning into a triumph of far-right and far-left radicals in an increasing number of European countries, said writer and journalist Vitaly Portnikov.

He said this during the 17th annual Kyiv Security Forum entitled “UA: UNITE AGAIN TO DEFEAT THE WORLD AGGRESSOR,” organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine.”

“We are now witnessing a very important generational change, when humanity is losing the vaccination that was after two world wars, and indeed, the idea of “never again” is being replaced by the idea of “we can repeat it.” And not only in Russia. The world has a completely different attitude towards the very danger of war as a tool for solving problems. And Russia is happy to use this,” the journalist noted.

Vitaly Portnikov noted that Ukrainians cannot defend European democracy on their own, which is turning into a triumph of far-right and far-left radicals in an increasing number of European countries.

“Another 5-10 years of such a development of the situation and the European democracy of the 1930s of the 21st century will resemble the European democracy of the 1930s of the 20th century. We are already getting there. So there is no vaccination not only against war and the fear of war. There is no vaccination against the danger of authoritarianism. It has disappeared. You and I are losing what we have gained in the post-war decades with so much blood, with such problems,” the journalist expressed his opinion.

According to him, a common security model for Europe is needed and it is necessary to understand, in the end, that Europe can only help itself. Vitaly Portnikov also emphasized that a just end to the war in Ukraine is needed.

"Every month and every year of this war increases the fear of war in our societies and creates incredible opportunities for the triumph of right and left radicals. We need to find new security structures over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and over the European Union, if we ourselves have brought ourselves to a situation where both of these structures do not give us a guarantee of common survival. And therefore we need a security model from Lisbon to Kharkiv, from Ankara to Odessa," he concluded.

The Kyiv Security Forum, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk “Open Ukraine” foundation, is the main platform in Ukraine to discuss issues of war and peace, national and global security.