So it's not really that they had "only 2-3 years", they had more then a decade to sever ties and strengthen their military. But they did they opposite.
At the same time, the realpolitik take is this all not too inconvenient for Europe. Give Ukranians some loans, send a few tanks, hug and kiss Zelensky in photo-ops when he visits. Let them keep Russian busy and grinding them down. It's not their soldiers after all, it's Ukrainians. If Ukranians lose they can go "oh well, too bad" and then keep buying Russian gas and oil.
There should have been a much stronger response to Russia shooting down an airliner full of Dutch nationals! And for using chemical weapons in a UK city! And yet everyone wanted to keep the gas and money flowing.
Another angle to keep an eye on is shipments from Germany, especially of advanced machine tools. There's lots of stuff that's very difficult to substitute from anywhere else, and should be much more thoroughly embargoed.
A war that started in 2014. They watched Putin annex Crimea then proceed to built stronger ties with him.
It's also worth pointing out that countries like Germany had a hand in making sure Ukraine won't make it to NATO. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Bucharest_summit
> The Alliance did not offer a Membership Action Plan to Georgia or Ukraine, largely due to the opposition of Germany
Moreover, US govt urged them not to do it but they did it anyway: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/trump-scolded-germany-for...
So it's not really that they had "only 2-3 years", they had more then a decade to sever ties and strengthen their military. But they did they opposite.
At the same time, the realpolitik take is this all not too inconvenient for Europe. Give Ukranians some loans, send a few tanks, hug and kiss Zelensky in photo-ops when he visits. Let them keep Russian busy and grinding them down. It's not their soldiers after all, it's Ukrainians. If Ukranians lose they can go "oh well, too bad" and then keep buying Russian gas and oil.