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Each passing hour prompts massive changes in EU policy

Updated / Sunday, 27 Feb 2022 22:35

Update from Tony Connelly in Lviv, Ukraine - as of 9pm Irish time

Now we see the EU saying it is going to raise funds to finance the military support of Ukraine which is a huge watershed in how Europe functions.

The EU tends to work incrementally, slowly, trying to find a common denominator with 27 countries that often have different agendas.

So this is a massive moment in the EU's foreign and security policy.

They have also banned Russia Today and Sputnik from operating in the EU and they have banned Russian aircraft from flying over the EU.

So with each passing day, with each passing hour, this invasion of Ukraine is prompting massive changes of policy and posture in the EU.

Meanwhile, where I am in Lviv, the ordinary people have been trying to prepare for a potential Russian attack. And trying to get on with their lives, given the fact that thousands of refugees are passing through here and also given the fact that Lviv is close to the Polish border where the supply of weapons and other support will come from the EU.

And they are concerned that this part of the world could come under attack from Russia for those very reasons.

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Large amount of nervousness in city of Lviv (6pm update)

People have been both trying to help those refugees who have been coming across the country from Kyiv and other cities, but also trying to defend the city as well.

They are building defences and part of the whole process is, again, you have homemade, grassroots operations building Molotov cocktails that are then going to be distributed across the city and elsewhere in the country.

This concern is that while Lviv has not been targeted to any great extent so far, that Russia will start to target those supply lines that are bringing material and other essential goods in.

There is a large amount of nervousness in the city as people await developments.

With staunch resistance, things not going to plan for Putin (Noon update)

It's day four of the invasion and some predictable conclusions already. A civilian death toll - over 200 killed. But I suppose a more surprising element to this is a strong sense that this is going to be a lot harder than Vladimir Putin had expected.

It seems he wanted to capture Kyiv quickly, force the government into submission and start putting about a new order in Ukraine that would be forced away from the EU, from the West, and firmly back in Russia's orbit.

Even though there has been a fairly brutal onslaught by the Russian military, both in terms of air strikes and tank movements, Russia has found it harder than had been anticipated.

There has been fierce resistance in key cities, including Kyiv, places like Kharkiv, Odessa, and it's clear that the Ukrainian military which has been preparing for something like this for perhaps eight years, and which has been funded and equipped by the West, is putting up a fairly staunch resistance.

And that means it is going to be difficult for the Russian government in terms of managing this.

If they can't do it quickly, then the effect of sanctions from the West will start to bite.

And of course global public opinion is already firmly against the Russian invasion.

And this suggests that Vladimir Putin may want to either short circuit this invasion, bring it to a swift conclusion, perhaps by some kind of negotiations with the government, or he may intensify the invasion and take more risks with the civilian population and civilian targets in order to really terrorise the government here into submission.

But clearly this is not going according to Vladimir Putin's plan in terms of the kind of resistance he has met on the ground.

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