Ukraine
The free world’s new reality
We are about to see brutality in Europe on a scalethat will be almost beyond our comprehension. Russia is turning…
Has Putin saved Boris?
It was with some relief that I heard that Labour’s Diane Abbott was opposed to the Russian invasion of Croatia,…
Idi na khuy
‘This will interest you,’ said my husband, looking up from the smeared screen of his telephone. For once he was…
Strait talk
What the Ukraine war means for China — and Taiwan
The return of Actual Badness
In the spring of 2020, I advanced an abnormally hopeful proposition: that one blessing that might arise from a pandemic…
Escape from Kiev
My relief – and guilt – at getting out of Ukraine
Putin’s rage
Despite western hopes, the Russian President won’t be easy to topple
Diary
Lviv, Ukraine On the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, near a place called Shehyni where the refugee crisis…
Friends in need
During the Cold War, any citizen of a Soviet bloc country who made it to Britain and claimed asylum was…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia: ‘Never in all my study or…
The Russian army is failing – but not enough to lose the war
There have been three major surprises for military analysts since the Russian military invaded Ukraine. The first has been the…
Saboteurs and looters: life in Ukraine’s capital
Lviv, Ukraine Russian troops have yet to reach the centre of Kiev. Instead, locals have two more immediate concerns: saboteurs…
Macron appears unassailable
Emmanuel Macron, the President of France for whom few voters have expressed much affection, is suddenly the leader of a…
Are Poles really against immigrants?
Krakow The invasion of Ukraine is being felt across Europe. Already hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians are spilling out…
The crisis in Ukraine is strengthening the EU
The EU has a knack for turning a crisis into an opportunity. The Eurozone crisis led to the centralisation of…
No-fly zones won’t work, but what about aid to Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin’s forces are encircling the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, and a 40 mile-long convoy of Russian armoured vehicles…
The Putin apologists of the European parliament
Never underestimate Vladimir Putin, and certainly never underestimate his advisers. Well before the first Russian rockets exploded in metropolitan Kiev,…
Ethical investors have weakened the West’s defences
It won’t be the first, or indeed the most serious, casualty of the war in Ukraine. It probably won’t be…
Joe Biden’s gung-ho State of the Union speech
It’s arguably not the right moment to focus on Joe Biden’s verbal slips, but it is a little unnerving when…
No, Scottish independence is not like the war in Ukraine
Perhaps it’s the absence of any oppression of their own country that compels Scottish nationalists to latch onto the oppression…
‘Staying Switzerland’ on Ukraine is impossible
The striking thing about the financial sanctions on Russia is not their severity, but just how many countries are joining…
Viktor Orbán has played a perfect game with Putin
On 3 April Hungarians will have their ninth set of free parliamentary elections since the collapse of the communist dictatorship…
Will Britain welcome Ukrainian refugees?
Immigration used to be the most-discussed issue in British politics. It gets less attention these days, for reasons too varied…
Germany has rejected Merkel’s military legacy
‘We are witnessing a turning point… the world is not the same anymore,’ said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday in…
Has Putin resurrected the West?
I think Putin will have been surprised. I mean: I was surprised. Weren’t you? Not, necessarily, that Ukraine should have…
