The multiplication of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine weighed on the security conference in the Bavarian capital. The Allies have been ready for unprecedented sanctions against Moscow in case of attack.
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Is it already war? No, if we mean the great offensive of which Vladimir Putin has threatened Ukraine for more than three months. But the multiplication of incidents in the last last days in the Donbass, the many violations of the ceasefire, the two Ukrainian soldiers killed, the evacuations of civilians orchestrated by the protracted separatists, all this more and more looks like the war. This extreme voltage, powered by the double speech of the Russian President on an alleged withdrawal of his border troops while leading nuclear exercises, has largely dominated the second day of the Munich Security Conference (Germany), Saturday, February 19th .
A feeling of increasing severity has marked the interventions of the leaders who have succeeded the tribune, including among those of Europeans who have so far been more restrained than the Americans and the British. It was also perceptible in the many meetings organized on the sidelines of the Conference, such as the NATO Defense Ministers and that of the G7 Foreign Ministers.
It is clear that in the spirit of Western leaders, a Russian military intervention is now so plausible that they are already evaluating the impact on the European order.
“The events of recent days could upset the international order,” warned the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in an unusually combative speech. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described “a new normality, to which we need to prepare.” If Russia invades Ukraine again, “it will be a huge shock” For the world, “said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, while at the Elysee, on Friday, that Europe would” will rock In another geopolitical reality “in case of new Russian aggression.
Limit Russia’s access to financial markets
Faced with this risk, including the British diplomacy, Liz Truss, think it could materialize “next week” – where other leaders recognize that they do not know anything -, Westerners have resolutely displayed their unit in Munich.
Come in the Bavarian capital at the head of a delegation of members of the two parties congress, the Vice-President of the United States, Kamala Harris, welcomed the work done in recent weeks by the allies to achieve this Unity, while Mr. Putin “unrolls the familiar manual of Russian aggression”, made of “misinformation, lies and propaganda”. M me von der Leyen welcomed himself from what “the European Union and the Transatlantic Alliance are perfectly aligned”.
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