In fact, healthy doses of failure have been meted out all around. But... who has learned more?
With regards to Russia, the government of Ukraine has really only learned what was known all along: that the government of their neighbor is prone to violence when things don't go its way and has never thought of Ukraine as more than a province. But they've also learned that the Ukrainian army had been allowed to rot while former president Yanukovych's hunting buddies enjoyed all manner of luxuries at government expense-- in fact they've learned a great deal about the depth and breadth of the wounds left by that corruption, as well as to the extent to which it still exists.
While it might seem that the recent UA/EU/RU accords in Minsk have left Ukraine in the lurch, where the "separatists" are being given more than their share of legitimacy, it is really much less the case that this is a failure in terms of the over-arching future for Ukraine. What Ukraine should attend to is ensuring the safety of her citizens by ensuring that this armed conflict is stopped in as advantageous a circumstance as possible, and that it continues to bring grievances to those willing to actually listen to them.
More importantly, what Ukraine should have learned at this point in terms of "accords" made with Moscow is that these are only valid in the face of a real penalty for Moscow's breaking any such accords can be brought to bear. That any government will make accords that work to their benefit should go without saying. But it has always been the case since the time of the Golden Horde that Moscow has only sought military agreements in order to gain advantage, such as the non-aggression pact with Hitler that brought about the benefit of the devastation of Poland, or in the case of "Minsk I", to re-arm and re-supply Russian forces within Ukraine.
Once that advantage had been gained, Ukraine simply did not have the ability to levy significant penalties of sufficient weight in order to have Putin honor "Minsk I".
If anything has been learned by the EU, it has been what it has learned about itself, for itself, and what Russia has learned about it.
The EU has had the opportunity to learn the need to diversify energy sources, and to ensure they strongly and solidly align against Russian aggression as the most proximate group to suffer from that aggression. It wasn't until the downing of a commercial civilian airliner that any real cohesion and strong solidarity was crystal clear, but even then there was a decided wishy-washy aspect to that.
Paris worried about their Mistral deal, Berlin about gas. Brussels was worried about whether the European Union would in fact act as a union, and it didn't seem like the Italians or Spanish were worried about much of anything, whereas Britain didn't like any of it. Politics is a pendulum, and yes it will go to and fro, but Europe now finds itself in a position where Russian monetary support for fringe political parties in various European countries threatens to glue that pendulum tight: it only takes one fringe party getting into power in order to outlaw the next election.
If the we in the US has had the opportunity to learn anything (other than exactly just where Ukraine is on the world map) it is that people-- millions of them--- very often really would rather rule in hell, or at least hang out at the ruler's hunting lodge or lakehouse-- or at least have a chance to so hang out-- than to serve in heaven. That is the extent of the depth of darkness at work in the galling oppression and suffering in Russia the social media troll who runs a string of bots that cheerfully spew Kremlin propaganda, the Kremlin-backed "correspondent" that barks threatingly at a journalist from Ukraine. Have you learned there have been meetings between the ultra-nationalist hyper-racist Kremlin advisor and David Duke? Do you know there is "RT News" operating in the United States, funded by the Kremlin and whose "journalistic" operatives behave rudely at US government press conferences held in your nation's very capital?
There is a lot yet to be set straight in all of this. Various whitewashing and soft-pedaling and short-selling etc. etc. will occur.
It is extraordinarily sad that Ukraine's foray into Western democracy resulted in such a pitifully tangled welcome, but it is extraordinarily great that the Ukrainian people, with their volunteer efforts, their fact finding on social media, and their endurance of spirit continued to fight the good fight. It is equally great that Russian dissenters made their voices known, and decried the war their government was pressing in Ukraine.
But what did the Kremlin learn? Well, they learned they could push the EU fairly far before real sanctions would be pressed. They learned that US politicians really don't react much to being called names or lampooned in Russian political cartoons: they have seen much worse and more in Western press. Maybe they've learned that while it takes a while for Western processes to show real resolve, and when these start to move that there is no knowing where the momentum of these will lead. Mostly, that while an agreement has been made with EU and Ukrainian leadership, and while the US has not yet armed Ukraine, this doesn't mean that US analysis might finally indicate arming Ukraine would be in the best interest of peace in Europe, and while it doesn't mean that any more sanctions will be pressed by EU for the time being, neither does it mean that they will be rolled back.
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