The key powers in the Western alliance have finally started to align their messaging and actions, says Sophia Gaston the Director of the British Foreign Policy Group think tank.

Wednesday came and went with the perilous tension of a disaster film. The mooted date of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine did not see thousands of troops spilling across the border. Nor did it move us any closer to an end point to this profound European crisis. 

Putin has pursued both direct and indirect gains from his provocations, many of which were possible to achieve without a combat boot transgressing the front line. His ultimate objective is to weaken Ukraine’s economy, democracy and society to the extent where it becomes a ‘failed state’ ripe for influence and extraction by its old Soviet master.