5/30/2023 0 Comments Wings of liberty brutal![]() This reaction was one part empathy with Ukraine, one part terror of what a victorious Putin would do next, one part guilt about how feebly the west had dealt with his earlier aggressions and one part an epiphany that democracy has to be defended if it is to endure. Finland and Sweden have applied to join a reinvigorated Nato. ![]() Billions of dollars in military support and economic aid has been funnelled to Ukraine. Western leaders have imposed unprecedentedly tough sanctions on Russia, even when it has meant hurting their own voters. ![]() Even more remarkably, it has been sustained for 12 months. The messy, squabbly democracies got their act together to respond with an impressive unity and resolve. The Kremlin’s dictator is not the only one who underestimated the resistance of the Ukrainians and the staying power of their supporters in the west. It wasn’t just Putin, it was a growing number of people in the free world who thought the democracies had become too debilitated, decadent and divided to defend their values. America had rattled confidence in its leadership with the ignominious scuttle from Afghanistan. Germany, with its dangerous dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, had a newly elected chancellor in Olaf Scholz, presiding over an untested three-party coalition. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, had previously despaired that Nato was in the throes of “ brain death”. As Russia’s military was beginning what was intended to be a lightning blitz to crush its neighbour, the UK’s clown car government was being consumed by Partygate. When Vladimir Putin launched his savage assault on Ukraine in February last year, he did not just misjudge its valiant people and their determination to fight for freedom. I t was an easy mistake for a tyrant to make.
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