The west has backed Ukraine to a degree Vladimir Putin, and perhaps the west itself, never expected in the year since the Russian president launched his invasion. The west has been Ukraine’s advocate, its refuge, its arsenal and its banker, if not its full-fledged military ally. We’ve found a way to be Ukraine’s decent friend while Ukraine is under fire.
But a harder test is coming, when the west must decide what kind of a friend it will be to a vulnerable, half-ruined country where the fighting has largely stopped, but where the war has not gone away, and may not go away for generations.
