This is why easing Russia’s oil sanctions is a gut punch to Ukraine

A.After a week in which Xi Jinping dominated global politics by hosting two of the world’s most powerful leaders, China’s president looks like a Giant. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has revealed that there is a minnow among men.

His capitulation to short-term domestic British politics by quietly easing restrictions on the import of refined Russian fuel into the UK shows that he has no capacity for strategic thinking or leadership: he raised the white flag on the battlefield in an act of cowardice he could not even fathom.

After hosting Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Xi continued his efforts to portray China as a force of stability in a world where international law is ignored by both Russia and the United States, calling for respect for global legal practices.

Starmer’s small-scale decision to allow Russian diesel and jet fuel into the UK so Britons can enjoy cheap flights over the summer is a blow to Ukrainians fighting to preserve their democracy. This is also a breach of agreements with its allies to cut off the Kremlin’s money pipe and of the UK’s written commitments.

This would be a boon for Russia’s war effort and would mean the Kremlin would have more money to kill Britain’s allies in Ukraine.

The men and women I have known since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, who held back Putin’s invading convoys as they passed through Sumy province and roared down the highways from Belarus, now have a slightly higher chance of being killed because of the British prime minister.

Small teams of Ukrainian volunteers repelled invaders with British NLAW anti-tank rockets in March 2022. Many formed their own units, continuing the best partisan tradition throughout history, and humiliated Putin with the flamboyance of the first SAS, stealing his tanks with tractors, deploying their wives as intelligence agents behind enemy lines and shattering his plans for conquest.

More than half of those volunteers are now dead. The survivors are now experts in drone warfare; It’s a killing method developed as the United States cut off military aid and Europe was unsure whether it really wanted Ukraine to win.

During the last four years of the war they were boosted by the thought and knowledge that Britain was behind them. But Starmer’s backtracking on sanctions against Russia (Britain’s reluctance to stop the Kremlin’s oil-carrying shadow fleet ship to finance the war has already been revealed) is a metaphorical gut punch to Ukraine and a psychological victory for Putin, delivered by the British prime minister.

It won’t be forgotten by men like “Sneaky,” the Ukrainian marine major who led international volunteers in the liberation of Kherson, or “Grumpy,” who used a stolen Russian tank to knock out 14 Russian armored vehicles in Sumy province, fought in the final days of the Battle of Bakhmut, and had his thigh shattered by a bullet-inducing Russian on a reconnaissance mission before Grumpy killed him at point-blank range.

In Zaporizhzhya province, where Russian troops have been pressuring the local capital for months, drones like Team Gray have received moral support from places like London. Avi, an engineer and now a drone pilot, had been on the front lines continuously for three years.

In Kiev, the history of British defiance – the “spirit of the thunderbolt” – has inspired the public to guard their upper lip in the face of nightly drone and missile attacks, ensuring that the city’s world-class clubs and restaurants remain open and continue to operate with defiant glee.

No such solution emerged from Downing Street No 10.

Starmer’s decision is bad news for Ukraine. It is also an astonishing failure to deliver on its mission to protect the UK.

This means Russia will have more money to wage its hybrid war against the UK and other Western allies, which includes spying on our global communications links, undermining our democracies, carrying out political assassinations and physical sabotage, and – in the long term – planning to cripple our critical national infrastructure.

Boris Johnson used his charm and charisma to achieve the strategic and economic disaster that meant Britain leaving the European Union. But in Ukraine, Johnson is as close to a national hero as a foreigner can be; for at the moment when Kiev’s need was most serious he stood up and rushed to help.

His rhetorical skills were on full display when he visited the Ukrainian capital; here Churchill-lite performances managed to elude the regiments and inspire front-line warriors with the idea that they were in the vanguard of the defense of Europe.

Starmer followed suit and took advantage of this low-cost, high-reward policy by signing a 100-year agreement with Ukraine last year.

Kiev will never fall to Russia, and whatever the outcome of the war, what remains of Ukraine will emerge as a military and industrial power. Britain’s role in the past is still acknowledged and this could help future relations with Kiev. But a country that has had 6 prime ministers in 10 years needs to protect its international reputation.

“British support came in our most difficult moments: military support, humanitarian aid and sanctions pressure. It came when others were still hesitating,” said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, deputy governor of the frontline Kherson province.

“Our concern is not about Britain’s leadership. This is about a specific mechanism that could undermine an instrument that Britain has carefully constructed over many years,” he added. “And this issue is important not just for Ukraine. Russia is not just a threat to us. It is a challenge to the security system of the entire free world.”

The Allies defeated Hitler in the Second World War, with Churchill leading Britain, who told his country in 1940: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

This country is ruled by a frail man who is no longer ready to defend democracy, for whom many died defending it then and for which many still die today.