Sorting Ukraine

This government has been unable to deal with Covid, social care, education or the cost of living, so it’s not surprising that they’re incapable of coming up with a solution for the crisis in Ukraine. But what’s dispiriting is how useless and irrelevant their proposals seem.

Liz Truss says that Russian aggression is so bad that the only solution is to degrade them until they’re incapable of similar action in the future. Really? She sounds like Palmerston, in the days when we knew we were in charge of the world.

Johnson, anxious to cement himself as Zelinskiy’s best friend, insists that Ukraine must not be pressured into accepting any peace deal they don’t like - they’ve suffered so much that only they can decide how this should end. Warm-hearted, maybe, but is that likely to lead to any kind of conclusion Putin will accept?

The available models (South Africa, Northern Ireland) suggest that serious peace-making has to be done in private, discreetly, with the powerful involvement of third parties. Simply striking gestures and sounding off - without consulting allies - may be the way you win elections and Brexit votes, but it doesn’t secure peace.