A
clear division has become apparent between the UK and the EU over the presence of Russian troops in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
While the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said the presence of troops is evidence that the invasion of
Ukraine has already begun, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, was more cautious when talking in Paris this morning.
It was not, to his mind, he said, a “fully fledged invasion”. The comments reflect the nervousness in some EU capitals – including Paris and Berlin – at hitting Moscow too early with the full “unprecedented” package of sanctions prepared over recent weeks and being left without any further leverage over the Kremlin.
In contrast, EU member states in the Baltics argue that Putin will only taunt the bloc with incremental incursions that have the appearance of falling shy of the threshold for the “massive costs and severe consequences” threatened by the bloc over a military invasion. Those EU governments argue that it will be death to Ukraine by a thousand cuts if the bloc prevaricates.