Diplomats Listen Up: Who Will Be The Next Stoltenberg?

Diplomats Listen Up: Who Will Be The Next Stoltenberg?

As world leaders debate the terms for peace in Ukraine and policymakers gather to shape Europe’s security future, youth organisations across Europe and Ukraine urge diplomats to act with clarity, resolve, and responsibility. This moment demands leadership – not symbolism.

Recent media reports suggest some EU governments are considering appointing a special negotiator to engage with Vladimir Putin, driven by fears that Ukraine’s future could be decided without Europe at the table. These concerns are not new, but leadership under pressure matters. 

Facing War, the documentary following Jens Stoltenberg’s final years as NATO Secretary General, shows that diplomacy only works when grounded in principles, deterrence, and unity. Europe does not need a negotiator who normalises aggression or trades away long-term security for short-term calm. It needs leadership willing to defend a just and durable peace.

The situation in Ukraine is worsening: renewed strikes, deepening insecurity, and rising psychological strain on civilians. Ukrainian youth face disrupted education, displacement, and deep psychological harm. Under Russian occupation, many endure forced re-education, cultural erasure, deportation, and the risk of coerced mobilisation. These are daily realities, not distant threats. 

Any European diplomatic initiative must therefore strengthen Ukraine’s position, not constrain it. As young people across Europe, we call on diplomats to ensure that any special negotiator or peace framework is guided by the following principles:

• Refuse any peace deal clause that permanently blocks Ukraine from NATO membership.
  
  
• Intensify coordinated diplomacy to end the war.
  
  
• Provide credible, enforceable, long-term security guarantees.
  
  
• Support psychological, educational, and reconstruction needs of Ukraine’s youth.
  
  
• Ensure youth voices are central in peace negotiations and post-war recovery.

An unstable Ukraine endangers young people across Europe. Our futures, rights, and livelihoods depend on decisions being made now.

The Budapest Memorandum showed the cost of weak security assurances: promises were broken, and aggression followed. Europe cannot repeat that mistake. As the generation that will live longest with the consequences, we urge leaders to choose deterrence over denial, principles over performative diplomacy, and lasting peace over temporary fixes

Co-authored by Rebirth Ukraine, UA.Youth C.I.C., and supported by Think-Film Impact Production

If you wish to sign this letter, simply drop us an email on team@uayouth.uk