Yes, Ukraine needs weapons. But what if supplying them could prove catastrophic?

‘Providing Ukraine even more arms may well produce the results its proponents anticipate. But what if Putin orders his generals to bomb the supply routes from Poland and Romania, the Nato countries that have the longest borders with Ukraine?’ Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

The United States and some of its Nato allies – Britain, Poland and the Baltic trio – have been the most vigorous in insisting that Ukraine must, for moral and strategic reasons, receive the weapons it needs to fight Russian aggression.

The moral case, strengthened by Ukrainians’ valiant resistance and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Churchillian wartime leadership, is that Ukraine is the victim, Russia the aggressor.