For a country the size of Romania, which has the second-largest military force on NATO’s eastern flank and on whose border Russia is fighting a war in Ukraine, the public stance of the authorities in Bucharest on Europe’s biggest conflict in 80 years can seem passive at best. Why did it end up here, how important are bad Russian-style relations with Ukraine for Romania, and what is Bucharest actually doing towards Kyiv?

Romania seems to be simply allowing the right thing to be done with occupied Ukraine without making any additional efforts. At the highest level, the Romanian state has politically and diplomatically correct statements for a NATO and EU state, through which it supports Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. However, you are left with the feeling that Romania is not living up to the historical stakes of this moment, which has instantly changed the European security paradigm and has global economic implications. In the imaginary Eastern European scale of positioning in relation to this conflict, Hungary has become the black sheep, while Poland and the Baltic states seem like the cool guys who too often pick up on the scandal. Romania, it seems, remained somewhere in the corner, afraid to interfere.

Despite the fact that Romania is the NATO nation with the longest border with Ukraine, even longer than that of Poland, Bucharest is erased or even completely absent from the public agenda of strategic discussions about the war. All the key points of diplomacy and military positioning that the US had in Europe regarding the defense of Ukraine were focused on Poland or other European states.

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