A moment to be glad of the Churchill spirit

BRITAIN and the free world are, as a distinguished commentator has noted in today’s Sunday Express, facing their “Munich moment” with the crisis on the Ukraine border.

As Russian tanks and troops mass, apparently preparing for an invasion, the actions of Vladimir Putin certainly do have echoes of Hitler’s demands to annex the Sudetenland in Czechoslavakia in 1938.

As Boris Johnson this week prepares to meet President Putin in a showdown over Ukraine, we should perhaps reflect that at this vital moment in our history we have our 21st-centurywinston Churchill in place, not a modern-day appeaser like Neville Chamberlain.

The decision by the Prime Minister to hugely increase British forces in Eastern Europe to underline that the UK and most of her allies will not tolerate Russian bullying is admirable and the right thing to do.

Some may ask why the UK is getting involved in an obscure territorial dispute so far away.

And, indeed, that was one of the same questions which stayed Chamberlain’s hand in fronting up properly to Hiter in 1938.

The answer is the same though. Britain and her allies have a moral obligation because of promises made to Ukraine and this obscure dispute has far wider repercussions which could destabilise the world if not dealt with properly.

Put simply, after the fall of the Soviet Union Ukraine was persuaded to decommission all the nuclear weapons on its soil in exchange for a guarantee of its sovereignty and a promise of protection.

If Britain, the US and others allow the

Russian tanks to roll in and do not lift a finger to prevent it, then no other would-be nuclear state will ever again trustwestern promises and be persuaded to disarm or not develop weapons of mass destruction.

In the past in Crimea and Syria, the West has sat back and appeased Putin too much. Now Johnson is leading the international community in “sending a clear message” that enough is enough.

The shameful behaviour of the German government, its refusal to put pressure on

Russia and the way it has managed to block other European states from helping Ukraine also again underlines why we are better outside the EU and able to act in our own best interests.

Most of all though, it is moments like this, just like the other big calls of getting Brexit done and making the brave decisions on the pandemic, that show why Mr Johnson is the right man to lead this country as Prime Minister.

We should ignore those who want to worry more about peripheral issues like cake or drinks in the garden.

What we need is a man who will not cower, repudiates timidity and instead never shies away from making the courageous and bold calls for the benefit of this country and the free world.