After four years of systematic bombing of civilian infrastructure, there is no longer any doubt: Putin's war aim is to annihilate all civilian life in Ukraine through terror. The op-ed links two urgent needs—the SkyShield air defense system for unoccupied areas and the implementation of the People First humanitarian framework for those held captive in occupied territories—and directly addresses the President of the Republic.

After four years of war in which the Russian army systematically bombarded Ukrainian civilian infrastructure—apartment buildings, hospitals and maternity wards, universities and libraries, and, every winter, the facilities that supply the country with energy—there is no longer any doubt: Putin has decided to utterly annihilate all civilian life in Ukraine in order to achieve, through terror, the moral collapse of the population. What, then, is the crime of these neighbors, whose very existence and unique history the Kremlin denies? They dared to choose freedom and, since 2014, have refused the vassalage imposed upon them for centuries by Russian imperialism.

Russia obviously has no need for new territories. The resources of the vast areas over which the federation reigns are largely untapped, its villages are becoming depopulated, its roads are no longer maintained, and so on. The large-scale invasion of Ukraine, like that of Crimea and part of the Donbas eight years earlier, serves a different purpose: to erase the very existence of the Ukrainian people by Russifying them.

If we do not want to stand by passively and complicitly while what strongly resembles a genocidal war is systematically waged against civilians, we must come to the aid of the population as quickly as possible. The NGO Price of Freedom has studied the feasibility of an air defense zone capable of intercepting Russian missiles, guided bombs, and drones over western Ukraine. This proposal, called "SkyShield," has been endorsed by several hundred experts and high-ranking military officers. It would fall within the purview of the armed forces of the Coalition of the Willing, initiated by Macron.

Can we count on the President of the Republic to commit to implementing this air shield with the same vigor he demonstrated in creating the Coalition of the Willing? Can we also count on his support for the civilian population in the occupied territories? The situation of Ukrainians in Russian-controlled areas is no less dire than that of the inhabitants of besieged Ukraine. Figures documented by human rights organizations reveal the extent of the terror inflicted upon the population and confirm the Kremlin's intention: to destroy civilians physically and morally, sever their ties to Ukraine, and achieve their complete Russification.

Nearly 20,000 children were taken from their country; fewer than one in ten were able to return. But beyond these deportations, hundreds of thousands of minors grew up under occupation, subjected from kindergarten onwards to indoctrination aimed at turning them into soldiers of the enemy in the future.

At least 16,000 civilians—likely many more—have been abducted and are being held illegally and incommunicado on Russian soil. Torture, sexual violence, degrading treatment, disappearances, murders: international law is violated daily in these detention centers, from which some will never return.

As for the three million inhabitants of the occupied territories, they live under constant duress: a Russian passport is imposed under threat of losing everything—housing, parental rights, access to healthcare. Even this forced submission does not protect them: expropriation continues, methodically, to make way for settlers from Russia.

This is why the Coalition of the Volunteers must impose, in talks with Russia, the humanitarian framework called for in the People First appeal, launched by the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winners, Ukrainian Oleksandra Matviichuk and Russian Oleg Orlov: allow an international ICRC delegation access to all captives and forcibly displaced children; secure the return of these children to their families; demand the release of all civilians illegally detained, in Russia as well as in the occupied territories; organize the repatriation of prisoners of war; guarantee any Ukrainian who wishes to do so the possibility of leaving the areas under Russian control; and put an end, everywhere, to forced Russification.

Two emergencies, one single demand. For the civilians of free Ukraine, bombarded daily by Kremlin missiles and drones, the Coalition of the Will must immediately begin implementing SkyShield: an air shield capable of protecting cities, hospitals, schools, power plants—everything that allows a country to remain standing. For the civilians of the occupied territories, the Coalition must impose the humanitarian framework of the People First Appeal as a prerequisite for any negotiations. To tolerate the occupation without demanding the release of captives and children is to abandon millions of human beings to the erasure of their identity, their language, their very existence. These measures are the minimum conditions for a peace that is not a shameful agreement.

Europe was built after 1945 on a promise: to no longer tolerate the annihilation of peoples, to no longer abandon civilians to barbarity. This promise is either kept or broken today in Ukraine. Ukraine is our first line of defense. Protecting Ukrainians is defending who we are, it is defending ourselves.

Signatories

Opinion piece submitted by:

Galia Ackerman , historian, editor-in-chief of Desk Russia.

Aurélien Duchêne , geopolitical consultant, columnist for the LCI channel, teacher at ILERI.

Pierre Raiman , historian, Vice-President of For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!

Sylvie Rollet, Professor Emeritus, President of For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!

Constantin Sigov , philosopher, Director of the Centre for European Studies at Mohyla University in Kyiv.

Nicolas Tenzer , senior fellow Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)

Françoise Thom , historian and Sovietologist, honorary lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

Cécile Vaissié , university professor of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet studies.

Emmanuel Wallon , Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology

Michel Yalovleff , General (2S) of the Army.