West-Russia relations are approaching a dangerous low point or even point of no return that may be decisive for the further development of Russian-NATO relations, already under severe stress since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2013-2014. It is also clear that the United States-Russia confrontation has become global rather than regional, as the case of Syria clearly shows. This also reverberates on NATO-Russia relations, adding further tensions, especially in the Baltic Sea and in the Black Sea, which have lately become hot spots for possible military confrontations, either spontaneous or through premeditated military incidents.

Ukraine: The European frontier - a blog curated by Valerii Pekar.

A relationship that used to be characterised by the 1969-invoked “change through rapprochement” and “partnership on eye-level”, has seen a rapid cooling over the course of the last two years. Germany and Russia used to be close partners with vibrant exchange on the political, economic, social and cultural levels. Even when Russia’s relations with the rest of the West began to deteriorate in 2011/2012, following the untransparent presidential election, the German government was seen as a connector and mediator. However, since the annexation of Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine, the German political elite also distanced itself from president Putin and became a strong advocate of sanctions. At the same time, Germany has always been in favour of dialogue and remained at the discussion table, which helped to facilitate reaching the Minsk II agreement.

During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Cossacks became a tool of the “Russian World” propaganda and formed radical Orthodox groups. Now, the revitalisation of the Cossacks and the Russian National Unity movement, the creation of the Orthodox military-patriotic clubs and the opening of Rossotrudnichestvo (The Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation) branches in Belarus may suggest that the country is doomed to repeat the Ukrainian scenario.

There is a certain irony when British journalists are riding alongside Ukrainian Civil Society volunteers, delivering British military uniforms (purchased in Kyiv) to Ukrainian troops fighting Russian and separatist forces in the Donbas region – it shows not only that the world is truly a smaller place, but also that the situation on the ground in Eastern Ukraine is a dire one.

On July 27th around ten thousand people marched through the streets of Kyiv. Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate from all over the country gathered in the capital to participate in a litany on St Volodymyr Hill and a procession for peace in Ukraine. Some of the pilgrims walked to Kyiv on foot from their hometowns all over Ukraine.

Vadym Maznichenko, a 30-year-old construction worker, lived a regular life in the suburbs of Kyiv, when in summer of 2014 he was drafted to war in eastern Ukraine. He returned after several months, having lost his leg and hand. He could not get a prosthetic hand in his native Ukraine then, and laughs loudly when I ask about the artificial leg the state provided him.