Former U.S. Envoy For Ukraine Kurt Volker said in an interview with Krym.Realii that the international community was late in realizing that Russia really intended to seize Crimea, and therefore reacted so slowly.
“We realized late that Russia really intended to seize Crimea. At the moment when they did it, no one believed it, and therefore reacted so slowly. Only after Russia held a pseudo-referendum in Crimea, and then annexed it, we started applying sanctions", Volker said.
He noted that the international community should have focused much more on this, but "we did nothing until it was too late".