Ukraine: Will Britain put boots on the ground as tensions between Nato and Putin’s Russia intensify? – Patrick Mercer

Ukraine: Why Nato must take Putin’s nuclear and chemical weapons threat seriously as world leaders meet – David Hobbs

Now, much vital ground was covered – which I’ll cherry pick in a moment – but one thing stood out for me from our own Prime Minister’s contribution.

Remember, Britain’s still quite a big fish in Nato’s paddling pool and Boris Johnson is thought to be having quite a ‘good war’.

But listen to what was said.

There was some back slapping about the substantial numbers of highly effective Brit light anti-tank weapons – NLAW – which we’ve provided along with our training teams in Ukraine before hostilities began, but my ears pricked up when gold was mentioned.

Apparently, Britain is to pay the wages of military specialists such as pilots, artillery observers and drone operators in order to make Ukraine’s defences even more lethal.

Think about it: Britain won’t send her own troops, but we’re ready to find foreign warriors’ wages. Well, who are these people; from where will they come?

I thought President Zelensky’s central message over the past month was that he was fighting an existential battle for the future of Ukraine and, by extension, other vulnerable countries.

So where are these fighter jocks and drone jockeys who can be lured back to the airfields by British sovereigns? Loafing patriotically in a bomb shelter or loitering on a beach abroad?

I very much doubt it.

No, I suspect all such people are either dead or already at their joysticks. This jarring suggestion sounds like a brazen attempt to attract soldiers of fortune – just the sort of thing to send the Kremlin into another flat spin.

It also smacks horribly of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s – and we all know what came hard on the heels of that ‘regional war’.

Britain aside, all eyes have been on President Joe Biden’s presence. I think it’s fair to say that up until now Mr Biden has not distinguished himself during this conflict: his leadership has been, at best, faltering.

He must also see the irony of Donald Trump’s assertion that the European countries were not contributing enough to Nato’s coffers whilst expecting the US to provide a military umbrella.

Until now Mr Biden seems to have thought about defence only in terms of how many Covid masks he should wear.

The announcement, though, that Nato troops would be adopting a new ‘force posture’ by deploying battle groups to Bulgaria, Rumania, Slovakia and Hungary will reassure Poland and put further pressure on Turkey properly to disengage with the Kremlin.

But – and it’s a huge but – didn’t Vladimir Putin accuse Nato of bad faith when its membership expanded with troops and weapons being deployed ever closer to Russia?

Strangling Ukraine’s request to join Nato was a declared reason for his invasion, but won’t putting more forces hard against Russia’s borders give Putin another casus belli?

Yet, isn’t one of the few benefits of this war increased Nato solidarity and doesn’t the Alliance exist to deter aggression?

Well, many would argue that Nato was created to counter the Soviet threat and that it should either have disbanded in 1991 or urged Russia to join.

Putin isn’t slow in pointing out that rapprochement was possible then; instead, the West chose to continue the confrontation driving a ‘new’ Russia away and ultimately into Chinese arms.

Shortly we’ll see how Moscow will react to these de facto Nato advances – I guess it won’t be pretty.

But what if a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine is not the only one Putin has in mind?

The Kremlin has made it abundantly clear that it seeks to reshape the post-Cold War global order that it has never regarded as politically and legally neutral but as a self-serving American construct.

Whilst there’s no doubt that the Ukraine operation has been a severe disappointment for Moscow, what if Russia absorbs the loss of life and wealth and accepts a protracted stand-off as it did in the Donbas, but writ large?

After all, as Putin crowed at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium recently: “We haven’t had this unity for a long time.”

With Russia’s assault stalled and blunted, I have no doubt that this crisis will drag on and on.

So, with a guess at what Putin plans next, Germany has started to rearm and it’s clear from the Nato summit that others will follow.

But what of Britain? There was no mention of extra money for defence in the Spring Statement nor was there any suggestion that the impending cut to the Army’s strength of 10,000 will be cancelled.

I know it will be expensive, but we’ve got to read the runes and prepare to defend ourselves: we can’t just send rockets and pots of money, we’ve got to be ready to put British boots on the ground – and by that I don’t mean another batch of galoshes for Ukraine.

* Patrick Mercer is an ex-soldier and former Tory MP for Newark.

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