It’s 11 years since I watched Russian troops stripped of military insignia seize Ukrainian army bases in Crimea, while their president, Vladimir Putin, publicly denied that any of his forces had crossed the border.
‘We feel so helpless,’ one teacher told me with tears in her eyes as thuggish armed groups prowled the streets. ‘Our rights are violated, our children threatened with guns and there is nothing we can say or do about it.’
She was right, sadly. Following the first annexation of European terrain since the Second World War, the 2.3 million Crimean citizens of Ukraine faced a terrible choice: flee their homes or submit to Russian servitude.
One family I befriended moved to Bucha. Eight years later in March 2022, following Putin’s attempt to seize the whole of their country, this pleasant suburb of Kyiv became synonymous with Russia’s bloody war crimes after 278 corpses were found and evidence emerged of torture, enforced disappearances and summary executions.
Despite such atrocities, frightening numbers of people in the West have fallen for the fake news pumped out by Putin that so fouls up social media.
A drone explodes in Kyiv during a Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital yesterday
At least 12 people were killed in the missile strike. Pictured, rescue workers recover bodies from the rubble
And how sickening it is that one of the Kremlin’s stooges has turned out to be the supposed leader of the free world: a US President who debases democracy by bending weakly to Putin’s will and parroting his propaganda.
Reports suggest Donald Trump is pushing a seven-point ‘peace’ plan that gives Moscow almost everything it wants, while simultaneously attempting to bully Ukraine’s leaders into capitulation, by threatening to walk away and leave them to continue their brave fight for freedom without all-important American military aid.
The key concession is a recognition of Russia’s legal right to Crimea, which suggests the White House now sanctions the right of countries to invade, ethnically cleanse and loot land belonging to other nations.
Bear in mind that, like every other region of their country, the citizens of Crimea voted for Ukrainian independence in a 1991 referendum staged after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
And Russian Unity, the political party which seized control after Putin’s troops appeared in 2014, had won a pathetic four per cent vote share at the preceding election.
Despite the atrocities, frightening numbers of people in the West have fallen for the fake news pumped out by Putin that so fouls up social media
Reports suggest Donald Trump is pushing a ‘peace’ plan that gives Moscow almost everything it wants, while simultaneously attempting to bully Ukraine’s leaders into capitulation
Yet Trump seems content to rip up the settlement that has served our continent so well since the 1945 defeat of another fascist dictatorship – even as Russia suffers substantial military losses while struggling to make significant advances on the ground.
This sets a dangerous legal precedent that could be exploited by Moscow in the future, since its desire to take over the rest of Ukraine remained undimmed and its expansive ambitions could well include one or more of the Baltic states.
By showing itself to be an unreliable ally, Washington not only leaves Nato seriously undermined but offers encouragement to China’s grotesque dictatorship in its determination to seize democratic Taiwan as it seeks to become the dominant global superpower.
Other elements of Trump’s ‘peace’ plan are equally shocking: lifting sanctions and welcoming Putin back into the international fold on the one hand, while offering no meaningful security guarantees to Kyiv, let alone demanding any reparations from Russia, on the other.
The Kremlin’s response – unleashing the worst attacks on Kyiv for nine months – shows Putin feels emboldened by Trump’s stance, especially given the US failure to approve fresh military aid for Ukraine.
Britain, like the rest of Europe, can be under no illusions. The world has become more dangerous. Democracy is under threat. We can no longer rely on the US. And Russia – almost certainly behind a wave of ‘grey zone’ sabotage attacks on undersea cables, computers and factories – see us as the enemy.
We need to follow the lead of nations such as Poland and Estonia that, having lived in the shadow of Russian rule for decades, are under no illusions about the grave threat posed by Moscow.
Poland is expecting to spend 4.7 per cent of its GDP on defence this year and Estonia has pledged to spend 5 per cent by next year. The UK, meanwhile, spends just 2.3 per cent – and a planned rise is far too small and slow.
As Trump attempts to force an unjust peace on Ukraine, we must banish the complacency over an expansionist Russia’s threat to our continent’s security.