A parliamentary report has accused the British government and European diplomats of "sleepwalking" into the Ukraine crisis.
In a report published today, the House of Lords' EU Committee said it found a "catastrophic misreading" of mood by Europe ahead of the standoff between Russia and Western countries over Ukraine.
The committee said Britain "has not been as active or as visible as it could have been" in trying to resolve the crisis, and that foreign ministries in Britain and other European countries were poorly equipped to draw up an "authoritative response."
It also said that for too long the EU had been optimistic about Russia's democratic development, and as a result Europe failed to realize the depth of Russian hostility when the EU opened talks on Ukraine in 2013.
