Russia’s unrepented return to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) showed one thing: Ukraine is in love with a Europe that doesn’t exist anymore. When Ukraine pursues European integration,: it has the mental picture of the late 1990s and early 2000s – the time when the idea of the EU enlargement conquered the hearts and souls of Europeans. Well, this idea got dissolved in a sea of new considerations, prejudices and – most importantly – fears.

It’s a new EU and a new Europe. The one that isn’t sure what comes next. The one that doesn’t want to be a standard-bearer of the good ideas for the outside world. It wants the good ideas for itself. The outside world can decide on itself what it wants. And yes, for many of these Europeans, Ukraine’s freedom is about as much a nuisance as for Russia. Their world ends, more or less, with Poland.