“We underestimated the threat posed by Russia,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published on October 1.

He emphasized that the threats to Europe primarily lie in the realm of defense and cybersecurity, and that Russia is also interfering in European countries’ politics through information manipulation and exploiting the sensitive issues such as migration.
Pretty serious for a “paper tiger”.
Interestingly, at the EU leaders’ summit in Copenhagen Macron was among those who opposed tougher anti-Russian measures and expanded support for Ukraine. As Reuters reported, Macron once again rejected the idea of confiscating Russian assets due to concerns about the global legal consequences. Macron also rejected the creation of a special mechanism to bypass Hungary’s veto on Ukraine’s admission and denied the idea of expanding the European Commission’s role in European defense matters.
“Even the threat of war didn’t prevent the EU summit from remaining a forum for discussion,” concluded Politico columnist Jacopo Barigazzi. Despite the fact that EU leaders exceeded the allotted time limit for discussing security issues and debated during four hours, they failed to reach consensus on any of the issues: neither Russian assets nor the “drone wall.” The only thing they agreed on was their unwillingness to be late for the dinner hosted by the Danish crown, so by 7:00 p.m. everyone was already at Amalienborg Palace.
Parallel to the Copenhagen summit on Wednesday there was held an online meeting of G7 finance ministers, resulting in a joint statement that spoke of the “bold steps” the seven are taking to increase the cost of the war for Russia, but did not specify what these steps would entail. The fact that after the meeting the EU members of the G7 – France, Italy, and Germany – asked the other participants in the format to join the process of seizing Russian assets, suggests that none of them are actually willing to take any real responsibility.
In Copenhagen President Zelensky, as usual, presented his allies with a list of what the Ukrainian Armed Forces need and what actions must be taken to definitely “crush” Russia. To this end he used the tactics of intimidation and addressed the drone incidents. Specifically, Zelensky noted that Ukraine has never been Russia’s primary target; it has allegedly always sought to destroy the West and Europe in particular.
“Their strategy today is very simple: divide Europe, create discord and prevent us from uniting. We must act together. We must be strong,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leadership simply cannot admit that Russia is failing to divide Europe over the Ukrainian issue because Europe is united in its unwillingness to expose itself to even the minimal risk of a direct confrontation with Russia. Each country explains this in its own way, some openly, like Prime Minister Orbán, others behind a thousand masks, like President Macron. This creates a vicious cycle of unrealistic promises and empty hopes, which the Ukrainian authorities feed on while the country slowly dies.