How the West can respond to Putin’s military build-up

In the last few weeks, Russia has been flaunting its military build-up in and around Ukraine, sending 20,000 extra troops, artillery convoys, and trains heaving with weaponry to Crimea. To avoid this escalating into full-scale war, a more robust and consistent response is needed from the international community, as well as new fora and strategies to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, France and Germany have assumed leading roles in mediating the conflict. They are part of the ‘Normandy Quartet’ and mediators for the Minsk Protocol. But both of these initiatives have floundered and the Franco-German failure to stand up to Russia is partly to blame, following Macron’s self-serving attempts to ‘reset’ with Russia and Germany’s enduring commitment to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Both countries released equivocating statements last week about the need for ‘all sides to de-escalate’, demonstrating that neither can be relied upon to defend the victim in all this, Ukraine.