Paul Manandise: Putin is deliberately targeting civilians, Europe must respond

by Paul Manandise, Europol Colonel, political and military figure, Franco-Ukrainian singer

Source: Manandise on Facebook

Leaders of Europe, I address you from Kyiv — and at the same time, from the depths of my European heart.

Like you, I was taught the meaning of the words: “Never again.” I was instilled with pride for a continent that endured barbarism, absolute horror, yet emerged with values: human dignity, freedom, solidarity, justice. I carried those values like a spiritual flag. I believed in Europe — truly.

I believed in your oaths, in your history lessons, in your commemorations, in your speeches about human rights. I could never have imagined that one day I would see Europe look away while a terrorist regime led by Putin commits absolute horror right at its own borders. Things must be called by their names.

What Putin is doing is not a “military operation.” It is a war of terror. It is a policy of destruction. He wants to break a people — my people, the Ukrainians. He wants to annihilate an entire nation, drown it in fear, hunger, cold, and darkness.

Putin is deliberately bombing our power plants — not for real military gain, but as collective punishment. So that families shiver in their homes. So that hospitals struggle to keep their equipment running. So that children, instead of quietly learning to read and write, experience the fear of freezing, the roar of rockets, the endless darkness.

Imagine for a moment a European child — French, German, Italian, Belgian — doing homework by candlelight because someone, out of pure hatred, decided to destroy all your power plants.

Imagine your parents in the dark, your grandparents in the cold, your cities plunged into an unnatural, hostile night — not because of a natural disaster, but because one man, sitting in his bunker, decided to turn electricity into a weapon of collective torture.

This is how we live today. It is not an exaggeration. It is not accidental. It is a strategy. And this strategy has a name: terror. State terror. Vladimir Putin is targeting civilians — deliberately. He targets residential buildings, neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, critical infrastructure. He wants to kill Ukrainian civilians. He wants to destroy all Ukrainians.

Absolute horror is not just the sound of explosions. It is also the silence afterward, when a mother no longer knows how to keep her child warm. It is an elderly man putting on three coats to survive the night. It is a little girl trembling at every shadow, every rustle, because for her, the sky is no longer a place of dreams but a place from which death could fall at any moment.

And in the middle of all this — we, the Ukrainians. We resist. We repair. We rebuild. We restore power lines again and again under fire. We keep our flags raised, our language alive, our songs, our books, our schools.

The Ukrainian heart beats. It beats louder than the explosions. It beats for freedom, for dignity, for the basic ability to live a human life. But there is another pain: watching Europe betray itself.

I say this as a European at heart: I never thought I would see a continent of human rights, a continent that honors the memory of mass graves from the past, hesitate, delay, calculate, maneuver — while a European people is tortured, while absolute horror repeats itself in ways your history textbooks have long described.

I was told Europe means solidarity. That you never leave a neighbor attacked alone. That a child shivering somewhere in Europe matters to every capital, every government, every conscience.

And yet today, as Putin bombs our power plants, systematically destroys our energy system, tries to freeze us, to break us through exhaustion and fear, I see hesitation, compromise, fear of “provoking too much” — as if what is already happening is not enough to call it horror.

I tell you this without hatred, but with deep sorrow: when Europe retreats, it betrays not only Ukraine. It betrays itself. It betrays the lessons it proclaims to the world.

Because if European values do not apply to Kyiv, if they do not apply to the children freezing, if they do not apply to the civilians Putin deliberately strikes, then what are they really worth?

The Ukrainian heart has not betrayed Europe. It fights for it. Every day. Every night. Under bombardment. In the dark. In the cold. Our soldiers on the frontlines, our engineers repairing power lines, our doctors operating by generators, our teachers continuing to teach in school basements — all of us still believe in the values we were taught: freedom, dignity, justice.

Absolute horror is what Putin is doing. The ultimate test is what history now sets before Europe.

So I ask you — leaders, citizens of Europe: What do you truly believe in? Are you ready to defend what you claim to stand for, or are these values just words on plaques and in official speeches?

Here in Ukraine, we have already answered. We chose to stand. We chose to stay on our feet, even at the edge of darkness. Now it is your turn to decide: facing the absolute horror that Putin is inflicting, will Europe remain true to itself, or will it accept the role of a bystander in its own betrayal?

Read more: Paul Manandise: A French voice, a Ukrainian heart, a leader