Democracy vs autocracy. Freedom vs censorship. National self-determination vs imperialist annexation. Peace vs war. These sharp dichotomies are the lenses through which we, Europeans, look at the Ukrainian conflict and rediscover ourselves united in the Western values, embodied in the heroic resistance of our fellow Ukrainians. Unanimously, Member States decided for the first time to use the EU budget to purchase and deliver weapons to a third country under attack. Unanimously, the same Member

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... tates decided to activate the Directive 2001/55/CE on temporary protection: an ad hoc tool to manage mass influx of displaced persons designed more than two decades ago, but never used before, not even in the 2015 "Mediterranean" refugee crisis. So, why now? The answer advanced here is that the lesson has been learnt: the Council decision on temporary protection adopted on 4 March not only conveys a political message of solidarity with the Ukrainian people; it also reveals the awareness that the 2015 refugee crisis was mainly an administrative crisis and that, this time, a more pragmatic approach is required to prevent the national asylum systems from being overwhelmed. Moreover, a less hostile view of secondary movements seems to emerge, with potentially far-reaching consequences. At the same time, temporary protection is not a silver bullet for what is a complicated and long-lasting challenge.