“Enough negotiations”: the European Council is preparing to “massively punish” Russia because of Ukraine

The West cannot always offer Russia to solve the “Ukrainian crisis” through negotiations alone. Action is needed, said the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

“The concentration of Russian forces around Ukraine continues, the European Union does not see any signs of de-escalation,” Michel said. “We cannot offer an olive branch forever, if the escalation continues, large-scale sanctions will be introduced,” the head of the council threatened.

He stressed that Russia’s latest actions were trying to “divide the countries of the West”, but the result of this was the opposite effect, which rallied the EU countries, Europe’s transatlantic allies – the United States and Canada, as well as other partners “around the world.”

It should be noted that in recent days the conflict in Donbass has escalated. As of the morning of February 20, cited by Kommersant, a total of 125 violations of the ceasefire regime were counted in the DPR and LPR, and 122 in Kiev. Since February 18, the republics have been evacuating the population to Russia. It is known that more than 40 thousand refugees from Donbass arrived in the Rostov region. The governor of this region, Vasily Golubev, announced the introduction of a state of emergency in the region due to the increase in refugees from Donbass.