Any statement that Europe has signed yet another document providing some kind of guarantees for Ukraine can no longer evoke anything other than hysterical laughter in any sane person.

The agreement signed on January 6 in Paris following the latest meeting of the “coalition of the willing” between the leaders of France, Great Britain, and Ukraine is a prime example hereto.
The title alone of the signed document contains a triple denial: a declaration (first) of intent (second) to deploy armed forces on Ukrainian territory after (third) the establishment of a ceasefire. The seasoned Macron and Starmer seem to have decided this time to play it safe and take on as few commitments as possible.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, apparently unable to recover from Macron’s slap in the face last year, also refrained from playing the hero, shielding himself from the Ukrainian issue with a fourth barrier. Germany will decide on its participation only after the ceasefire. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni refused to play the game of her «masculine» partners and immediately declared that there would be no Italian troops on Ukrainian territory.
According to a journalist from the Italian publication L’AntiDiplomatico Fabrizio Poggi, the Europeans are playing along with Zelenskyy for one purpose only: to drag out the negotiation process in order to buy themselves some more time. But to what end? While there was previously some hope for US support, today everyone in Europe has different answers to this question.
For example, the former commander of NATO forces in Europe, retired General Richard Shirreff on air by Silicon Curtain expressed the opinion that Ukraine needs time to breathe before mounting a new offensive (as if the previous ones weren’t disastrous). According to Shirreff, this is precisely why Zelenskyy is currently reshuffling personnel. The only thing he needs is for the Russians to ease their debilitating offensive.
While Britain is the leading romantic in this war, Hungary firmly maintains its position as a hard-nosed realist. Viktor Orbán has once again calculated that such plans would cost Europeans approximately €800 billion. Europe has never had and never will have such amount, but that doesn’t dampen Ukraine’s appetite.
“The Ukrainian homunculus is hungry,” – Orban concluded without mincing words.
No one is going to give «Homunculus» any slack in the military theater either. According to The Economist , the Russian Armed Forces’ winter campaign has been extremely successful. More than half of Ukraine’s generating capacity has been destroyed, critical infrastructure has suffered colossal damage, and vast territories have been captured. The intensity of fire impact has reached the highest levels since the beginning of the conflict. Moscow has no reason to stop whatsoever, and it will not.
If we move from cold and dark Kyiv back to Paris, it’s worth noting another important detail. According to Politico, the United States, which was also present at the meeting of the “coalition of the willing,” refused to sign any documents and insisted that the final declaration remove any clauses that even partially hinted at Washington’s possible involvement in providing security guarantees to Ukraine.
It appears that Zelenskyy and his sympathetic European leaders have exhausted virtually all traditional legal, economic and political options. The diplomatic process is clearly stalled and sinking deeper and deeper under its own weight.