Supporting Ukraine, whatever it takes

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Supporting Ukraine, whatever it takes

Two-and-a-half years after Russia attacked Ukraine imagining it would install a Moscow-backed puppet regime within days, the war has now

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. For the first time since the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Russian territory has been

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.

The scale of the disaster inflicted on his country by

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is being dramatically demonstrated in the region around Kursk, scene of a famous ******* counter-offensive in 1943.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have crossed the border to occupy territory more than six miles inside Russia and now await the Kremlin’s response. It is inconceivable that Vladimir ****** will allow the Ukrainians to remain for long on Russian soil and yet the initial response from Moscow was relatively muted, possibly because it was such a surprise.

Since the invasion in February 2022, Kyiv has been in the impossible position of being expected only to defend itself with no recourse to a counter-strike apart from sporadic forays. Few countries in the world would put up with the ******** and missile strikes they have endured without hitting back at the aggressor.

But in order to secure Nato backing, there has been a tacit agreement that western weapons would not be fired into Russia to avoid triggering a wider conflict.

Faced with the slow delivery of promised aid, President Volodomyr Zelensky has taken the biggest gamble of the entire conflict by ordering a direct incursion into ****** territory. He might hope this will force Russia to redeploy its forces and relieve pressure on the front line further south. He will also be hoping both to boost domestic morale and remind the world that Ukraine is not prepared to be ground into submission.

The Kremlin has laughably called the invasion a ********** act, seeking to maintain the ludicrous fiction that they have all along been engaged in a “special military operation”. But it will play into Mr ******’s argument that the motherland itself is under threat, not just from Ukraine but from Nato. Exploiting those fears may even strengthen his hand.

It is also a risk for Mr Zelensky who has his critics at home both political and military. Western capitals seem to have been taken completely unawares by the Ukrainian demarche and have yet to articulate a common response. Are they prepared to give him unequivocal backing? We are about to see the oft-made promise to support Ukraine “whatever it takes” tested to the limit.

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#Supporting #Ukraine #takes

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