The latest reports from the Black Sea paint a grim picture. Ukraine, we are told, has launched a strike in Crimea, and the British government has responded with its characteristic hand-wringing, warning against ‘escalation’. One must ask: escalation of what exactly? The slow, grinding attrition of a war that has already claimed tens of thousands? Or perhaps the escalation of Western hypocrisy, which continues to supply Kyiv with just enough weaponry to prolong the conflict but never enough to win it decisively?
Let us cast our minds back to the Victorian era, when the British Empire understood the art of proxy warfare. They armed their allies, yes, but they also dictated the terms. Today, our leaders seem to have forgotten that lesson. They supply HIMARS and Storm Shadows while clutching their pearls at every Ukrainian offensive. It is a ludicrous pantomime.
Crimea, of course, is the powder keg. Russia annexed it in 2014, a move that was rightly condemned. But the West’s response has been a masterclass in strategic incoherence. We impose sanctions, we vocalise support, but we draw red lines that we dare not cross. Now, with Ukraine striking the peninsula, we see the logical endpoint of this policy: a stalemate that benefits no one except the arms dealers.
The question, then, is whether this strike was a desperate act by a beleaguered Ukraine running low on reserves, or a calculated provocation to drag NATO further into the fray. Given the recent leak of German discussions about Taurus missiles, the latter seems plausible. Kyiv knows that the West’s patience is finite. By escalating, they force our hands. And our leaders, lacking the spine for a genuine peace negotiation, oblige.
What we are witnessing is not a war of liberation but a war of exhaustion. Both sides are bleeding. Russia, for all its bluster, has suffered staggering losses. Ukraine, for all its heroism, is running on fumes. And the West, for all its moralising, is content to let this tragedy continue. The Fall of Rome did not happen overnight; it was a slow decay, punctuated by moments of shocking violence. This is one such moment.
I am no fan of Putin, but I am also no fan of a foreign policy that consists of shouting ‘Slava Ukraini’ while doing the bare minimum. If we truly believed in Ukrainian sovereignty, we would have given them the tools to end this war in 2022. Instead, we drip-feed them arms, ensuring a bloodbath that serves only to weaken Russia at the cost of Ukrainian lives.
The British warning against escalation is mere theatre. We have already escalated: economically, diplomatically, and now, it seems, territorially. The only question is whether we have the courage to see this through or the wisdom to seek a diplomatic off-ramp. History, I fear, will judge us harshly. We are fiddling while Crimea burns.
