There is no question of military intervention by the west, we are told, comfortingly, as though it had been a realistic possibility.

Instead, we are warned about a new cold war, and of a crisis in relations between the west and Russia. Russia's actions "threaten peace and security in Europe", said Nato's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

William Hague, Britain's foreign minister, called it "the biggest crisis in Europe in the twenty-first century".

US secretary of state John Kerry condemned Russia for what he called an "incredible act of aggression" and threatened "very serious repercussions".

The new Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatseniuk, even spoke of a "declaration of war".

The west, and Nato in particular, has indulged in provocative acts and has a lot to answer for – whether or not Mikhail Gorbachev was assured at the time of German unification that Nato would not expand to Russia's borders. The matter is disputed. The US offered Ukraine Nato membership at the time of the Georgian-Russian war in 2008 even though it was clear the US would not intervene militarily.

Nato officials, anxious to show that Nato still has a role after the departure of its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year, trumpeted the participation of Ukraine in a big exercise, Steadfast Jazz, last year.

As a (limited) number of commentators have pointed out, while pro-Russians in the Ukraine establishment have pocketed much of Moscow's aid, "pro-western" Ukrainians include ultra nationalist militias and neo-fascists.

And any agreement by the EU to provide much-needed financial aid Ukraine must depend on the restoration of the official status of minority languages – and also, perhaps, a more federal constitution for the country.

War is not conceivably in the west's interest, nor in Russia's.

Crimea, home of Russia's Black Sea fleet, is a special case. Nearly 60% of the population is Russian and more than 10% Tatars, many of them Sunni Muslims.

Anatol Lieven, professor in the war studies department at King's College, London university, says that even some Ukrainian nationalists have told him in private that Crimea was never part of historic Ukraine.

Last week, the Crimean parliament, called for a referendum on the peninsula's status on 25 May, the date set for the new presidential election in Ukraine. Crimea's new pro-Moscow premier, Sergei Aksenov, subsequently brought forward the date to 30 March.

The west, and Russia, should wait for that.