Foreign Ministers from EU countries are meeting on Monday to size-up policy towards the Russian Federation as Moscow builds forces on Ukraine’s borders.

This comes as opposition leader Alexei Navalny was moved to a hospital from his penal colony – where his health has so deteriorated that his doctors say he could die anytime.

Amid these issues are diplomatic expulsions by both Moscow and western countries.

EU member state Czech Republic and Russia are at the heart of the latest intrigue. Prague on Saturday ordered 18 Russian diplomats to get out within 48 hours, saying Moscow was involved in a 2014 ammunition depot explosion in the country, which, if true, would be an extraordinary ante-up.

Miloš Zeman, the octogenarian Czech President, has sometimes signaled empathy for Moscow, but the latest allegations were obviously a step too far in Slavic détente.

Russia responded by ordering 20 Czech diplomats expelled on Sunday.

Traditional diplomatic expulsions have involved more routine espionage issues.

With little chance of even more harsh sanctions on the Kremlin having much in the way of immediate impact, the EU states are mulling what to do now.

Even in Germany, ever so cautious of irritating Moscow out of its myriad commercial ties with the Kremlin, some politicians have signalled they want an end to the “Nord Stream 2” gas pipeline.

Then mega-pipe project under Baltic Sea, which would bypass old Ukrainian gas routes to the EU, is extremely valuable to the Kremlin.

The project is already 95 percent complete.

EU heavyweights like France’s President Emmanuel Macron has talked in recent days of “red lines” with Russia which he said were inviolable – in this case a possible attack on Ukraine.

This would be a considerable hardening of the position of one of the key bloc members.