Sorry, Ukraine!

So, European Union foreign ministers met today in Luxembourg, and agreed “to expand the list of Russian officials targeted by an asset freeze and travel ban”. According to unofficial info, there are only four new names on this list which will be revealed tomorrow. Four names! Only four names were added to the current list!

That’s all? What???

Currently, only 33 Russian officials and lawmakers are on the asset-freeze and travel-ban list. EU, after a long head scratching, will add four more. Do they really believe that such sanctions mean anything to Russia? How naive! Or – which is most likely to be the case – how cynical is this approach pretending to do something without doing anything.

But even such a minute step seemed too much for some EU members. Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, said that it was too early to impose more sanctions, but that the EU should be prepared. (Prepared for what exactly?) 

Okay, okay, they also agreed the bloc's leaders COULD meet next week to further ratchet up pressure, and expressed hope that a meeting of foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the U.S. on Thursday in Geneva will make real progress in scaling back tensions between Moscow and Kiev. 

What EU hopes for? That Russians will suddenly offer Ukraine an apology and return Crimea? Or that arrival of John Kerry will scare Russia to death?

According to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, ‘it is the position of France, it is the position of Europe, to increase the pressure without making dialogue impossible.’ In other words – to pretend doing something without actually doing anything. 

EU foreign ministers also passed a few proposals – grant up to 1 billion euros in loans to cover Ukraine's critical balance of payments  and also agreed temporarily abolish or reduce customs duties on Ukrainian imports which might save Ukrainian exporters almost 500 million euros a year. Nice proposals, of course, but will it stop Russia? 

Already a month ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Moscow of possible economic sanctions if the crisis escalates. Back then it was only Crimea. Now, a month later the situation without a doubt have had escalated into something much more ugly but promised economical sanctions still hadn’t been even discussed yet. 

US also is not so keen on actions. White House spokesman Jay Carney made clear that the United States was not considering lethal aid for Ukraine. "We're not actively considering lethal aid but we are reviewing the kinds of assistance we can provide," Carney said. "We are looking at a variety of ways to demonstrate our strong support for Ukraine including diplomatically and economically." 

Saakasvili few days ago mentioned words, told by Winston Churchill to Hitler's appeasers: "You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." 

Few years ago Russia snapped part of Georgia, and the West did nothing. Now Russia snapped Crimea and again – West did nothing. Now unstoppable Russian fingers are reaching for East Ukraine. 

Surely, we cannot expect modern-day politicians, obsessed with polls and midterm elections, to follow Churchill’s position all the time. „But at a minimum they should not want to go down in history as the Neville Chamberlains of the 21st century,” points Saakasvili. 
 
Seems that West has decided. To do nothing. Sorry, Ukraine!