When I first visited Kyiv in 2015 to conduct media training courses for government ministers, ambassadors and other officials, the country had only recently been invaded by Putin’s forces. Just a year previously Russia had taken Crimea by force, and was causing havoc in Ukraine’s easterly Donbas. Ukraine was on high alert, its people only too aware that Putin would come back for more as soon as he could. Tragically, how right they were.
Now, after three years of full-scale war and the loss of countless lives, Ukraine faces betrayal by the West. Outrageously, Ukraine is accused by the world’s most powerful man of starting the war and failing to sue for peace. Other supposed allies say that Ukraine must meekly accept the loss to Russia of a fifth of its terriritory to a murderous invader. Putin is all set to declare victory. The aggressor will be rewarded, just like Hitler in the 1930s.
That’s why I grieve for Ukraine. The country I visited so often on business between 2015 and 2020 wanted nothing more than freedom to choose its own West-leaning path, which the West (and Russia) had guaranteed under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine wanted democracy, liberty and a path, eventually, to joining the EU and NATO.
Now, all those dreams are shattered, as two men, Trump and Putin, seem intent on deciding Ukraine’s future above the heads of both it and its European backers. There is even talk of Trump visiting Russia and bringing Putin out of the pariah status in which he belongs.
If the West had showed any determination and backbone, and given Zelensky the military resources he needed, Ukraine could have sent the invader packing. Instead, we gave Ukraine enough to keep on fighting, but not nearly enough to win.
So, when Putin comes back for more, threatening more of Europe and drawing us into a wider and more deadly conflict, as he surely will, we will have to right to be surprised or shocked. We will only have ourselves to blame for appeasing a murderous dictator.
