That's because they have to pretend they're independent nations and not states of the US

the colonies...

I mean the whole thing is basically distilled Merkel. A simmering tension to be solved with ever slightly changing agreements that don't actually ever solve the problem but you can mostly stop caring about it until the annual tradition of doing a new Minsk agreement. When it inevitably fails blame someone in the EU that doesn't really matter that much.

Yes:

Former German Chancellor Merkel admits the Minsk agreement was merely to buy time for Ukraine’s arms build-up

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview with Die Zeit, published on December 7, that “the 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It…used this time to become stronger as can be seen today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine.”

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/12/19/former-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-admits-that-minsk-peace-agreements-were-part-of-scheme-for-ukraine-to-buy-time-to-prepare-for-war-with-russia/

Germany has been the second biggest contributor after the US to funding and arming the Kiev regime and prolonging the war:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/22/pdff-a22.html

Not only that, Germany was also involved in the Maidan coup:

Germany’s social democratic president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then still foreign minister, also travelled to Kiev to negotiate Yanukovych’s replacement with the opposition parties and Yanukovych himself. He worked directly with Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the fascist Svoboda party.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/01/22/ukra-j22.html

Germany was already involved in an aggressive policy against Russia long before 2022. German foreign policy was heavily involved in the Maidan coup in 2014 and helped turn Ukraine into an anti-Russian entity.

https://kommunistische-organisation.de/englisch/germany-and-europe-are-gearing-up-for-major-wars/

Which stage of grief was it again?