This chapter examines changes in the EU’s foreign policy towards Russia
by assessing their gradually increasing contentions over Ukraine in two
phases: First, from the annexation of Crimea in March 2014 until November
2018 when Russia was shelling Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait. Second,
since this incident in the Sea of Azov until February 2024. The chapter
considers Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the shelling of Ukrainian
vessels in the Sea of Azov in 2018, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine
in February 2022 as critical junctures, demonstrating Russia’s increasing
threat towards Ukraine and shaping the EU’s changing policy paradigm
towards Moscow since 2014. In line with this book’s main objective, the
chapter examines paradigmatic and strategic shifts in the EU’s policy goals
and instruments (Hall, 1993) since 2014 in the context of power transition,
Russian aggression and the spread of anti-Liberal ideas