As Russian forces mass for a final push on the Donbas, we witness not merely a military defeat but an intellectual and moral collapse. The West, enamoured with its own decadence, has forgotten the hard truths of power politics. Ukraine's eastern defences crumble not for lack of weapons but for want of resolve.
This is the 1938 of our age: a crisis met with hand-wringing rather than iron will. The parallels to the fall of Constantinople are unmistakable. A civilisation that refuses to defend its frontiers does not deserve to keep them.
Yet here we are, debating sanctions while tanks roll. The lesson of history is simple: empires die from within before they fall from without. Russia's brutality is matched only by the West's delusion that appeasement brings peace.
It does not. It brings graveyards.
