Weapons Not Words Will Bolster Ukraine In Its Darkest Hour

As corpses line recaptured streets and mass graves are uncovered, the evidence is mounting that the Russian forces have committed atrocities on a monstrous scale.

- Leo McKinstry

In his typically powerful address to the United Nations assembly this week, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used eyewitness accounts to spell out the invaders' inhumanity against civilians: “They cut off limbs, slashed their throats; women were raped and killed in front of their children.

But moral revulsion is no longer enough. In this dark hour, what Zelensky needs is direct support rather than further rounds of applause. So far western assistance, though valuable, has been restricted because of fears about escalating the war into a wider conflict. In the wake of the Bucha massacre and a host of other war crimes, such reluctance looks increasingly misplaced.

Now confronted by the greatest threat since 1945, the defence of European civilisation requires the imposition of economic, military and diplomatic measures that can help to break the Kremlin's war machine.

Western nations like to boast about the toughness of the sanctions they have imposed on Russia since the invasion. But there is a massive hole at the heart of this boycott, for they have done little to halt their colossal imports of Russian oil and gas. An embargo would inflict severe damage Vladimir Putin's regime, since 40 per cent of Russia's GDP depends on energy exports.