Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
The breakdown in the military activities in the east of Ukraine, where government troops have been suffering defeats in recent days and have lost control over Russian-Ukrainian border in Donbass, puts the Ukrainian authorities in a stalemate. The Premier of Ukraine Arseny Yatsenyuk stated that Kiev expects “practical support from its Western partners and crucial decisions at the NATO summit in Wales.”
At the same time, the EU unlike the U.S. acts carefully and doesn’t hurry to accuse Russia of direct aggression against Ukraine. The EU office in Ukraine actually disavowed the statement of its own press officer David Stulik that the Crimean scenario was repeating on Ukrainian territory. It noted that the statement was “a personal opinion” of Stulik. Obviously Brussels is confused. Europe hasn’t made a decision on its actions in case the antiterrorism operation in the east of Ukraine fails.
The political scientist Behrooz Abdolvand warns the EU, including Germany, from turning into a geopolitical instrument of third countries. According to him, quick and thoughtless economic association of Ukraine with the EU along with heavier sanctions against Russia or Ukraine’s accession to NATO would be an unacceptable scenario for Moscow. Such steps would only increase Russia’s fears in the context of attempts to besiege it by Western forces.
In such a situation, escalation of the conflict and even direct military confrontation are quite possible. And the awful scenario of a real war in Europe will become reality. The German expert says that continuing capital outflow from Russia due to the launched sanctions and possible new fees caused uncertainty in the European banking market. European banks fear that Russian enterprises will be unable to pay for their loans in the current situation.
