From Vilnius to the Kerch Strait: wide-ranging security risks of the Ukraine crisis

ENA discourse about who can be held accountable for the emergence of the Ukrainian conflict has developed. The EU's and Russia's polar-opposite integration strategies with Ukraine, dividing the country between its political and economic affiliation with either Brussels or Moscow, were considered as factors causing tensions in Ukraine. At the same time an intensifying opposition towards President Yanukovich's leadership was another factor contributing to the deterioration of this crisis. A series of scholarly accounts examined the afore mentioned causes for intensifying violence of this conflict. The first Ukrainian-Russian confrontation in the Sea of Azov in November 2018 necessitates an assessment of the security implications of this re-intensification of a conflict which seemed to be frozen for several years. This confrontation exceeds Ukraine's borders. The imminent threat is reflected in the Ukrainian President's request for support by NATO and the implementation of martial law. By examining the EU's response to the Ukraine crisis between the annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the renewed Russian-Ukrainian confrontation in the Sea of Azov in November 2018, this article examines the EU’s capacities in providing security in Ukraine.