EU may claim to hate Putin’s war in Ukraine but it’s financing it
THE European Union’s addiction to Russian energy is directly paying for Putin’s goons to murder, torture, rape and destroy.
Those mass graves in Ukraine are paid for in euros. It is immoral, it is insane and it stinks.
Would we have pumped billions into the economy of Nazi Germany when Hitler was turning Europe into a slaughterhouse?
Would we have picked up the bill for mass murder as the Nazis attempted to enslave a continent?
When the Luftwaffe was reducing the great cities of Europe to burning ruins — including British cities — would we have happily paid for their bombs?
It is unimaginable.
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Yet EU nations have paid Russia 35BILLION euros (£29billion) for gas, oil and coal since Putin started his mad war, while giving Ukraine a lousy one billion euros (£834,000) for defence in the same period.
EU nations are — quite literally — paying for Putin’s war.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told journalists he had three items on his agenda to discuss with Nato.
“Weapons, weapons and weapons,” said Mr Kuleba.
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We should give Ukraine all the weapons they need. If the West lacks the will to fight Russia, then give Ukraine the military hardware they crave.
And yes, let’s seize the Russian oligarchs’ yachts, freeze their assets and kick out Putin’s supporters, their mistresses, thugs, prostitutes, family and flunkies.
Good riddance to the lot of them. They can all bugger off back to Moscow and queue for stale bread for the next 20 years.
But it means nothing if EU nations keep buying Russian energy. Cowardly and half-hearted sanctions proposed by EU President Ursula von der Leyen propose banning only Russian coal, when coal is just a tiny fraction of Russian energy exports.
If Europe can’t kick its addiction to Russian gas — Germany imports half of its gas from Russia — the atrocities we have seen this week are just the start.
Putin and his rabble have been given an historic kicking by Ukraine.
But now Russia is preparing for the next round of wanton destruction, mass murder and systemic gang rape in the south and east of Ukraine.
Sanctions are not enough. Big talk is not enough. UN resolutions are not enough. And tears are not enough.
DON’T RELY ON MURDERERS
Stop buying energy from butchers. How many half-burned bodies do we need to see before we understand?
How many peaceful European cities must be destroyed before we finally get it?
Russia’s war is being paid for with Europe’s money.
One sickening fact needs searing into the world’s collective consciousness: What EU nations have given to Ukraine for military aid is what they pay Russia for energy in just 24 hours.
We hear a lot of talk about war crimes and wishful thinking about seeing Vladimir Putin in the dock in The Hague for a modern Nuremberg Trial.
That would be richly deserved.
But Europe should not spend too long preening on the moral high ground.
Because buying Russian gas while the Russian army is murdering, torturing and raping is, I suggest, a war crime too.
It must end now.
Every government in the free world has to start taking steps to be self-reliant in energy, as our Government did on Thursday.
One sickening fact needs searing into the world’s collective consciousness: What EU nations have given to Ukraine for military aid is what they pay Russia for energy in just 24 hours.
It is not easy and there will be difficult debates as we seek to strike a balance between protecting our planet and protecting our people.
But there is truly not a debate to be had about buying Russian energy.
In the free world, it should be poison.
In the West, we should not rely on murderers for our energy.
No matter what living without it does in the short-term to the Germany’s economy, “Vorsprung durch Technik” can no longer be built on genocide.
And if the EU nations truly can’t turn off the gas tap from Putin’s Russia, then let us have a degree of honesty in Brussels and Berlin.
Please don’t wring your hands when the next mass graves are discovered.
Please don’t say how awful it is to hear about mothers raped in front of their children, millions bombed from their homes and innocent civilians shot dead for the fun of it.
If you can’t live without Russian gas, stop bleating about Russian war crimes.
Because you paid for them, Europe.
PRO-RUSSIA PROTEST? CUT IT OUT
RUSSIAN beauties like model Victoria Bonya, actress Marina Ermoshkina and DJ Katya Guseva are chopping up their Chanel handbags on social media under the hashtag #ByeByeChanel in protest at what they see as the fashion house’s “Russianphobia.”
Chanel has shut its stores in Russia and will no longer allow its goods to be imported into the country.
This is not Russianphobia, ladies.
It is what the world looks like now that your beloved President Putin has made Russia the most despised country on earth.
And if Russia sticks with Mad Vlad, then you will be carrying your glossy belongings around in bin bags for the next 50 years.
PM BID IS NOW BIT RISH
“GET my wife’s non-dom tax status out of your mouth!”
Rishi Sunak says he knows how Will Smith feels. The Chancellor says he finds it “very upsetting” that his missus Akshata Murthy has faced criticism. And she has a lot lately.
First for owning some £400million worth of shares in a tech company that, until last week, was operating in pariah state Russia — and more recently for her “non-dom” tax status, meaning that while she pays UK taxes on her UK income, as a resident of India she was not paying tax on overseas income.
Late on Friday she announced she will pay UK tax on “all worldwide income”.
“At least I didn’t get up and slap anybody,” Rishi quipped. “Which is good!”
I am not convinced that being a billionaire’s daughter (Mrs Sunak) is EXACTLY the same as congenital baldness (Mrs Smith). But of course it is upsetting for Rishi to see his wife being used as a stick to beat him with.
The trouble is that Mr Sunak’s wife is not simply worth a few bob.
Akshata Murthy is the daughter of one of the richest men in India — Narayana Murthy, founder of tech giant Infosys and estimated to be worth more than 4.3billion dollars.
And good luck to her!
Quite frankly, I wish my own dear wife was the daughter of a billionaire businessman.
But Rishi Sunak is a tax-raising Chancellor. And so it is not a great look to learn his wife is registered as a “non-dom” in the UK when the country is suffering a cost-of-living crisis.
It would be a tough revelation for any Chancellor to explain away. It is especially problematic for one raising taxes to historically painful levels to pay for the sacred NHS.
I always believed the Sunaks would make a wonderful first family.
Young, charming, good-looking, smart, and devoted to each other.
But Akshata’s non-dom tax status makes it much more likely that Liz Truss will be our next Prime Minister.
Yet give some credit to Rishi. If Mrs Parsons was a billionaire’s daughter, I wouldn’t be spending my life trying to fix the country’s finances.
I would be on the next private jet to Antigua.
QUEEN IS SAFE, JOHNNY
THE former Johnny Rotten — now a fervent monarchist, like all us old punks — is reportedly furious that director Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols drama is to be screened on Disney+ just when the Queen is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it, John.
The Queen has survived everything from the Blitz in her teens to Harry, Meghan and Andrew in her nineties.
HM will survive whatever Disney+ chucks at her.
THE wall chart is what makes every World Cup real.
Personally, I don’t think Fifa should be holding a World Cup in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
But I fully intend to enjoy the football.
And like every World Cup since the first one I remember — 1966, which spoiled me for life — I am 100 per cent convinced that England are going to win in Qatar.
IF you want to flummox a Labour politician, just ask them if a woman can have a penis.
From Keir Starmer down, Labour politicians think that’s a tricky one.
Perhaps when Labour finally decide if a woman can have a penis, their 122-year-old party will finally be led by one.
THE Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra are the bookies’ favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Turin next month.
The band have been given permission by the Ukrainian government to put down their weapons and pick up their instruments.
Their song is called Stefania — the name of the singer’s mum — and it’s not bad.
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And I can’t help feeling a pang of shame that, like everyone else in this country, I think Eurovision is the naffest thing in the universe. “UK — nil points!”
But if you are Ukrainian, Eurovision offers a glimpse of a better, kinder, more peaceful world.