For the past week or so it has felt as if Ukraine’s fate is more likely to be decided in Washington and Brussels than on the battlefield as US president Joe Biden struggles to get his US$111 billion (£88 billion) package of aid through the senate and EU members quibble over a €50 billion euro (£43 billion) lifeline for Kyiv.
“History is going to judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause. We can’t let Putin win,” Biden said after a video meeting with G7 leaders. But with all 49 Republican senators voting against the aid package, it remains stalled. And the recent electoral triumph of far-right candidates in Slovakia and the Netherlands and the intransigence of Hungary means that European solidarity behind Ukraine appears to be beginning to crumble.
Meanwhile Russia continues to be a diplomatic wrecking ball. Last week foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attended the annual ministers’ meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is fast becoming an oxymoron. Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states refused to send their foreign ministers to the meeting over Lavrov’s presence, while the US’s Antony Blinken and UK’s David Cameron attended a pre-conference dinner but avoided any contact with Lavrov.
