The longstanding folly that is the European Union project took on elements of pure farce as President Zelensky addressed European leaders at Brussels on Thursday, with a plea for more robust assistance and a warning on renewed Russian aggression in the region.

At the heart of the clownish tableau was the kernel of presumed European unity represented by France and Germany, with a remark by Chancellor Scholz that set the tone. Prior to meeting with presidents Macron and Zelensky at Paris, Mr. Scholz told the Bundestag that Germany “would not get involved” in “a public bidding war according to the principle of battle tanks, submarines, battleships, who can offer more” to Ukraine. 

Of course, in that ambivalence Germany is not alone. 

While the high-tech Leopard 2 combat tanks that Berlin will finally be providing to Kyiv are metallic music to Mr. Zelensky’s ears, Herr Scholz’s bristling comment reflects the extent to which the war in Ukraine grates on the chancellor: Would it not be easier if all this could just end? 

Yet if there is one major European power that has consistently failed on every count in terms of diplomatic energy or initiative to stanch the bleeding in Ukraine, it is Germany. France has flailed about on this front, but at least Mr. Macron’s misguided overtures to Vladimir Putin represented an effort.

Enter Italy — figuratively, at least. The firebrand Italian premier, Giorgia Meloni, is without question the most vocal advocate for Ukraine in a key country and economic powerhouse where some of the most high-level officials in government still have ambiguous but well-documented ties to the Kremlin. 

Ms. Meloni has distanced herself from that Moscow-friendly pack, which notably includes a former premier and business magnate, Silvio Berlusconi. That is partly why she was so piqued that Messrs. Scholz and Macron pointedly excluded her from a Parisian powwow with Mr. Zelensky ahead of the latter’s pro forma stop at Brussels  following his more significant sojourn at London. “It was inopportune,” Ms. Meloni complained, adding “our strength must be unity.”

What else could she say? Monsieur Macron, with whom Ms. Meloni has had a testy relationship in the past, was evasive: “I have no comments to make,” the Frenchman said, adding, “I wanted to receive President Zelensky with Chancellor Scholz and I think we were correct. Germany and France, as you know, have played a particular role for eight years on the issue” of Ukraine. 

It was until last year mostly an absentee role, but that is another matter. So is Hungary, a NATO member and full member of the EU that has soured on Brussels. Of greater import is that if Hungary’s populist leader, Viktor Orban, is not exactly a friend of Mr. Putin, where he truly stands with respect to the Russian strongman’s continental intentions is increasingly clear.

Relations between Kyiv and Budapest are already fraught; at issue is not only cheap Russ gas, off of which Hungary refuses to wean itself, but also long-simmering bad blood over some bits of contiguous Transcarpathian  territory that is not, for now at least, contested openly.

The tensions were on full view at Brussels, unofficial world capital of chummy photo opps and systematic parliamentary corruption (but with some great moules-frites). As Mr. Zelensky, accompanied by a heavyweight Eurocrat, Charles Michel, arrived for a group photograph with EU leaders, each one of those leaders could be seen applauding the battle-hardened Ukrainian president — except for Mr. Orban. 

If this all seems like a European version of high school, or kindergarten, probably the only person watching with more bemusement than cynicism is the biggest bully on the playground, Mr. Putin. According to Mr. Zelensky, the ravenous Russ is gunning for more than just the Donbas and holding onto stolen Crimea. While Ukraine is the main course, for Moscow tiny Moldova might make for a nice snack. Russia already has troops in breakaway Transnistria. 

Mr. Zelensky told his European interlocutors that Ukraine has intercepted plans by the Russian secret services to invade Moldova, a poor but strategically located country. He said documents showed “who, when, and how” the plan would “break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova.”

The AP reported that the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, charged last week that the West was considering turning Moldova into “another Ukraine,” alleging that the West backed the 2020 election of the pro-Western Maia Sandu. Mr. Lavrov is said to have claimed that Ms. Sandu, whom Mr. Zelensky informed of the leaked Russian plan, is eager to take the country into NATO, merge Moldova with Romania, and “practically is ready for anything.”

After the chaos and destruction of the past year, one would think that leaders of the EU would now be ready for anything — but then, they can’t even seem to get a photo opp right.