Western policymakers urge Europe against the "Munich Agreement" on Ukraine amid anxiety over the US election

More than a hundred current and former Western officials and policymakers have issued an open letter in which they call on European countries to prepare for different outcomes of the US presidential elections and to avoid imposing a deal with Russia on Ukraine.

The signatories believe that with the approach of the US elections, Ukraine and its allies are facing a "twin strategic danger".

They believe that the first danger is that an incoming Trump administration will attempt to impose a deal with Russia detrimental to Ukraine’s interests and to European security.

"This would leave Ukraine adrift from NATO and the EU, in a condition of fake neutrality – and Europe with a destabilising geopolitical greyzone in the heart of the continent," the open letter reads.

The second danger, according to the open letter, is that an incoming Harris administration will "continue with the policies of stasis and red lines, which have to date withheld the capabilities with which Ukraine could win the war".

"In this scenario, the fatalism of key European governments who refuse to believe Ukraine can win, and are tempted to commit – at best – only to the bolstering of NATO defence in response to a Ukrainian defeat, could become decisive within the alliance, while damaging its credibility," the letter goes on to argue.

The letter’s signatories believe that in both cases there are clear parallels with the 1938 Munich Agreement. It would be a "false ‘peace’ achieved through European acquiescence in the dismembering of a sovereign state", they argue.

However, a third course is possible, the open letter states. It can lead to Ukraine’s survival as a sovereign state and Russia’s defeat.

Moreover, they believe that the inevitability of Russia’s victory is a myth, and Ukraine can still win.

"The course of action we propose is, for a coalition of willing nations within NATO to commit to enhance military and financial support to Kyiv and to recommit to the aim of a sovereign Ukraine within its borders recognised by international law, focused around a clear strategy and theory of victory," the letter concludes.

Among the letter’s signatories are representatives of the UK’s Royal Air Force, the French Navy, former Estonian President Toomas Ilves, former Latvian Defence Minister Artis Pabriks, Social Democratic Party of Germany foreign policy expert Michael Roth, German Green politician Anton Hofreiter, and others.

Over the course of the past two weeks, US presidential candidate Donald Trump made a series of contradictory remarks about Ukraine and whether the US will support it in its resistance against Russian aggression. After a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in late September, Trump said he supports a "fair" peace for Ukraine, but did not say which solution to end the war between Russia and Ukraine would be regarded as such.

At the same time, Trump also spread disinformation about most Ukrainian cities being razed to the ground and implicitly accused Zelenskyy of having started the full-scale invasion.

Presidential elections are underway in the US today, on 5 November, with results from the first polling station, the village of Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, already released.