What a difference an invasion makes. As EU leaders gathered for an emergency summit in the Paris suburb of Versailles, gone were the dissenting voices willing to cosy up to the Kremlin. From the far right to the far left, the excuses of 2014 – when Russia annexed Crimea – have gone silent.
Wednesday's bombing of a children's hospital in Mariupol is a reminder that the West has seen this movie before: in Chechnya and in Syria. Are chemical weapons next? If so, what are the EU's red lines? Like NATO, the European Union is upping assistance to Ukraine while so far shying away from putting boots on the ground. The 27 still hope that unprecedented sanctions will suffice alongside ever-increasing armament of the Ukrainians.
Enter the limits of European solidarity: for its defence, the bloc remains dependent on US might. For its energy, it relies on Russian oil and natural gas. Could this war prove a turning point?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.
