The barbarism of Putin

It is now very clear that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is going to get even uglier and more brutal. Vladimir Putin’s forces are continuing to advance on the capital Kiev. There have been some appalling attacks today, including near the site of a memorial to the victims of Babyn Yar, a massacre of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a statement saying: ‘To the world, what is the point of saying “never again” for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?’ Today’s front pages were dominated by images of bloodied children. Putin’s ‘de-Nazification’ claim has always been preposterous for many reasons – not least that Ukraine has a Jewish president and prime minister – but the events of the past 24 hours have underlined that he will resort to anything to try to get his way.

Today Boris Johnson visited Poland, where he gave a series of press conferences and interviews about the efforts to stop the Russian invasion. He told reporters: ‘It is clear that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use barbaric and indiscriminate tactics against innocent civilians, to bomb tower blocks, to send missiles into tower blocks, to kill children.’ He has come under pressure in Britain to back a no-fly zone, particularly from defence select committee chairman Tobias Ellwood. But it’s not right to say that the pressure is all domestic: the Prime Minister was also confronted by a Ukrainian activist who asked him about it. Daria Kaleniuk also spoke movingly of her own experiences and those of her family and colleagues while accusing Johnson of being afraid and ignoring the fact that a new world war was ‘already starting’. She criticised what she saw as a mismatch between Johnson’s rhetoric on sanctions and the reality of figures such as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich not being punished, asking: ‘Where are all these mansions seized? I don’t see that.’ Johnson’s argument was that this would be direct combat with Russia, with consequences that would be very difficult to control. It was wrong, he said, to think that the UK could fix this via military means.

On our latest Coffee House Shots podcast, James predicts that Russia’s tactics will become even more barbaric and indiscriminate in the coming days. Johnson has conceded that it is going to take time for the conflict to end and has dodged questions on what it will really look like for Putin to fail, as he keeps predicting he will. What is clear is that there will be many more horrifying images and stories emerging from Ukraine first.