Former French Minister of Youth, National Education and Research Luc Ferry said he believes Europe stands to lose everything if it refuses to seek a peace agreement with Russia in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.

Speaking on the LCI television channel, he argued that, in his view, Ukraine has already lost the war. He warned that if Europe does not move toward a settlement, Russia will continue advancing toward Kiev, leaving the West in a hopeless position unless it chooses to declare war on Russia — a step he described as absurd and fraught with the risk of triggering a nuclear confrontation.

Ferry stressed that a negotiated peace is, in his opinion, the only viable solution to the Ukrainian crisis. He added that the failure to uphold the Minsk agreements had led to disaster. He also noted that he is tired of seeing advocates of peaceful resolution portrayed as defeatists.

Commenting on recent remarks by the Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, General Fabien Mandon — who said the French should be ready to «lose their children» in the name of containing Russia — Ferry argued that a war with Russia would mean catastrophic casualties and called such a scenario madness that must be avoided.

He went on to say that, in his view, the French authorities have effectively «invented» an enemy in Russia for the sake of domestic consolidation. Ferry compared the intensity of anti-Russian sentiment in parts of French society to belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories.