European Union sanctions on Russia will be robust and comprehensive, European officials say. They will be "massive... The mother of all sanctions" even.
But despite increasingly urgent calls for action and the deteriorating situation on the ground, the EU's sanctions package may not be coming just yet — much to Ukraine's disappointment.
The tension over when and how to levy sanctions was on full display on Monday in Brussels, where Ukraine's foreign minister met with European counterparts, urging them to move ahead right away rather than wait for the next Kremlin move.
"We believe there are good and legitimate reasons to impose at least some of the sanctions now to demonstrate that the European Union is not only talking the talk about sanctions, but walking the walk," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, told reporters Monday.
His remark comes two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the West for inaction, accusing leaders of "appeasement" and warning that sanctions issued after further Russian aggression would be too late.
In an interview with CNN from Munich, Zelensky urged Western leaders to break their silence on when and how they plan to respond to Russian actions in order to deter Putin.
"We don't need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen and after our country will be fired at, or after we will have no borders and after we will have no economy or part of our country will be occupied," he said.
"Why would we need those sanctions then?"
But top EU officials and other Western leaders appear to prefer, for now, to keep concrete details about possible sanctions under wraps.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that Europe is ready to levy sanctions, but will wait for the right moment.
"We are ready to do that when the moment comes," he told reporters, but "we are working for the moment not to come."
Despite much talk of unity, the question of exactly when and how to act remains unresolved.
At the heart of the debate is a question of what specific Russian actions would trigger sanctions.
Voices within the EU argue that it would be foolish to wait for Putin to launch a full-scale invasion in order to levy sanctions.
"We do not need to wait for an attack, for a military attack," Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Monday ahead of meetings in Brussels.
Washington Post