“Putin must fail” those are the three words that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been spreading around the country and indeed around the globe, to our allies, to our friends, and indeed to those who may be critical of us on a more regular occasion. Yet what Boris Johnson has managed to do is unite those, from Israel to Malawi, Afghanistan to the United States of America, against Putin’s brutal and illegal war against the innocent people of Ukraine. That is what our small island nation has been doing in this crisis, exercising the diplomatic might of the United Kingdom and showing the world what we CAN do to help. Therefore, if last week’s blog concentrated on what the United Kingdom is currently doing to stop Putin’s brutal crusade, this week’s blog will focus on what we can do further.
The situation in Ukraine, as it currently stands, is grim, with Russian forces pushing further into the country despite a tough and determined resistance put up by ordinary Ukrainian people. Those Ukrainian people are armed with UK weaponry provided by the Government in order to keep the Russian threat at bay. One of Putin’s biggest miscalculations was his assumption that the Ukrainian people would allow him to walk into their country and commit his atrocities, the failure of his invasion is evidence of this. We must ensure he remains frustrated by the Ukrainian resolve to fight by continuing to provide the Ukrainian people with lethal aid, not just supplied by Britain but by our allies as well. That is something we can do.
This war has created the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War, with more than one and a half million women and children fleeing Russia’s aggression through to Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary. These women and children are tragically being forced to leave behind their fathers, brothers, and husbands as men are required to remain in the country in order to protect their homes. Yesterday, the Russians and Ukrainians agreed a ceasefire in the city of Mariupol to allow citizens to flee the conflict. However, Russia took this opportunity, not to allow citizens safe passage, but to open fire and continue shelling the city, ignoring the ceasefire. To help with this growing refugee crisis, the Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched the Ukraine Family Scheme which allows Ukrainian refugees to be reunited with family members in the United Kingdom, allowing them to live, work and study in our country. In addition, we are helping to secure humanitarian corridors throughout the continent to allow individuals safe passage out of the conflict. We must ensure that we can, where possible, support as many refugees fleeing Ukraine as we can. That is something we can do.
Finally, and perhaps the most important part we as a country and as part of a democratic community must play in this ongoing war, is to fight Putin’s regime through the airwaves and through the history books. Vladimir Putin is banking on our global community to simply turn our heads away and forget, over time, about his invasion. In the meantime, he seeks to control the narrative, internationally but at the very least in his own country, that this war is simply a ‘military operation’ to ‘de-nazify’ Ukraine – which, upon an in-depth look at the composition of Ukraine’s parliament, I could only identify one member out of 450 members that could be considered as being part of the extreme right. To ensure Putin’s story is not told, and to ensure Putin’s history is never written, the western powers have taken to fighting Russia on the airwaves, with Russian state media banned across the European Union, and OFCOM is urgently reviewing the possibility of doing the same in the United Kingdom. In addition, the BBC is breaking through Russia’s ban by introducing regular short-wave frequency transmissions in the country and advertising how best to get around Russia’s ban. This is something we can and must continue to do.
Putin’s greatest miscalculation in his egotistic venture is his incredible undoing of what has been a decade worth of work. With his intervention in politics and media during the West’s elections since 2010, Putin has forever sought to divide us, but in this brutal invasion, he underestimated the price we are willing to pay to protect our values. Putin has done, what we considered, the impossible, he has united Afghanistan and America, he has united the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party, and he has united all democratic supporters against his brutal invasion. Putin will fail.