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At the beginning of the war, the EU reacted decisively. Now it is reluctant to give Ukraine a signal hope and will continue to buy energy in Russia. Won the poor souls, says Barbara Wesel.
It is estimated that Vladimir Putin earns about one billion euros a day from oil and gas exports. And the higher the prices, the faster the war coffers fill up. But Germany and others continue to reject the boycott, saying it would be too expensive for their economies. And when it came to giving Ukraine a signal to join the EU, the Europeans found no answer other than the usual empty diplomatic formulas.
There was a split between new and old member states and a long debate over what signal the EU could give Ukraine for its desire to join. Everyone knows this is a symbolic gesture. To give hope to tortured people and the feeling that they are accepted by Europe. Because it is precisely this political orientation of the country towards the west for which they are now paying a terrible price.
Poor reasoning towards a country at war
But Eastern Europeans, who wanted to send a signal to their neighbors, failed because of resistance from the Netherlands and others who invoke EU rules: That you can not make exceptions and that such an acceptance usually requires many years. This is a weak reasoning in a country that is being bombed to the ground by Russia. But caution and suspicion prevail in the EU. Ukrainian President Zelenski finally said he was disappointed with the result. And rightly so!
Barbara Wesel is the Europe correspondent
EU leaders are still bragging about the tough sanctions they imposed on Russia shortly after the start of the war. And, with the tightening of the sanctions screw further, some other banks will probably be blocked and some other oligarchs will be blacklisted. It hurts the Russian economy in the medium and long term, but it does not impress Vladimir Putin in the slightest. It is not enough to force him to a ceasefire or to sit at the negotiating table.
Instead, he commits war crimes every day, bombing civilians, firing rockets at evacuation columns, maternity hospitals and kindergartens. It’s the scorched earth strategy. And Europeans fill his war coffers with about a billion euros every day because they continue to buy oil and gas from it.
The photo in the inner courtyard of Versailles simulates a harmony that did not exist at the EU summit
The energy boycott is not coming
When, if not now, would it be time to turn off the tap on Putin? But even here self-interest triumphs over morality. That would severely damage the German economy, says Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Hungary, Bulgaria and others are also opposed because they are heavily dependent on supplies from Russia. Even if the majority of Germans are now in favor of such a boycott, government officials are becoming more cautious and fearful.
Maybe the blockade will come to an end, once Ukraine is back in total ruin, when the death toll becomes unbearable and the number of refugees so unbearable. But then it will be too late. Now this last sanction could possibly have an effect. While the Europeans are helping Putin win the war. And none of the desperate messages of the brave President of Ukraine change this fact.
One also has to ask how wise it was to exclude a no-fly zone over Ukraine in the first place. EU countries, most of which are also in NATO, quickly withdrew from Putin’s vague nuclear missile threats. The smartest strategists would have left this question in the dark, because in this way the heads of government made one thing clear above all: no matter what happens and no matter how terrible the situation in Ukraine becomes, we will always be just spectators !
The EU wants to take care of itself now
At first there were big words that this war was an attack on the whole of Europe and its security. The EU concluded that it must now take care of itself, its economic autonomy, its defense and its place in the world. This is not wrong – on the contrary, because geopolitically everything has been missing for years. But given the tragedy in Ukraine, this is very little. In the end the skeptics, the hesitant, and the wretched prevailed. They left Ukraine to Putin’s missiles and his illusions of reviving the Russian Empire. The EU is supplying aid and weapons and caring for refugees – but does not seem willing to take greater risks and use more resources. The coming weeks and months will show if they made the wrong calculations.DW
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