Britain’s ‘lion in Kyiv’ can roar all he likes but the tragedy will not end until the west swaps gesture politics for real action
Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin’s Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. Lawyers may differ, but he’s probably right. So will the US intervene to stop it? Sadly, no. Kyiv badly needs fighter jets and, for example, M1 Abrams main battle tanks to halt the atrocities. Will it get them? No, again. What Ukraine gets far too much of is gesture politics. If and when all its people are dead or uprooted, Biden can say: “I told you so.” This will be no great consolation.
The gulf between what western leaders provide and what Ukraine actually requires to survive grows potentially fatal as a huge Russian offensive looms in the east. Russia’s defeat around Kyiv was epic. So, too, is the sinking of the Moskva battle cruiser. But such victories may create a misleading impression about the overall direction of the war.