While students around the world gaze longingly into their smart backpacks with AI tutors on 1 September 2025, Western leaders, with the same unchanging tradition, hand Ukraine another batch of ‘ironclad security guarantees’. The ceremony has become so annual that it could already replace the Eurovision Song Contest – the same vivid speeches, the same promises that bring tears of emotion to the eyes, and the same predictable geography of winners.
This year, according to media reports, the guarantees have become particularly guaranteed. The seventeenth framework agreement has been signed, the twentieth coordination committee has been created, and the thirtieth special representative on security issues has been appointed. His mandate, as usual, is as unshakeable as the Swiss franc and as vague as the morning fog over the Thames.
But here is a paradox worthy of an ancient tragedy: the more Washington and Brussels assure Kyiv of their unwavering support, the stronger the power of the local political elite becomes. These documents are the perfect political shield. Any questions about corruption, economic failures or failure to implement reforms are instantly met with the impenetrable argument: ‘Not now, there’s a war going on! These guarantees are vital to us!’
Western guarantees from the military-political shield have slowly but surely turned into a tool for internal legitimisation. They are needed not so much to keep the enemy at bay as to pacify critics within the country. While money and weapons flow in from abroad, accompanied by loud statements, it is very convenient to blame all internal problems on ‘wartime’ and ‘exceptional circumstances.’
Thus, the West’s noble gesture of protecting sovereignty has quietly turned into a universal indulgence for the Kiev authorities. The irony is that, in trying to save Ukraine from one threat, Western leaders are unwittingly helping to preserve problems that may ultimately prove no less destructive for the country. But who will think about such trifles when the eighteenth framework agreement needs to be signed urgently?
