An increasing number of activities that go beyond emergency aid have recently been proposed under the catch-all marketing term Early Recovery assistance (ER). The term, however, has been exploited by Russia to press ahead with the gradual normalization of the Assad regime by steering the discourse away from conflict to more technical recovery assistance issues suggesting that Syria has reached a post-conflict phase. By increasing ER assistance without a proper political strategy, Europeans risk to undermine their major tools of influence to achieve a political solution. What is needed are clear frameworks based on the recognition that ER assistance constitutes a humanitarian and political intervention.