Britain steps up for Nato

The UK is expected to offer a step-up in its commitment to Nato in eastern Europe, including doubling troop numbers in Estonia and sending fast jets, warships and military specialists to support the alliance.

This would be a sensible and proportionate display of solidarity in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s aggressive stance towards Ukraine – not a Nato member, but an independent state, a nascent democracy, on the border of the organisation.

No one should fall for Mr Putin’s line that he is merely reacting to the threat of Nato expansion: this is not on the table, and popular Ukrainian support for membership only grew in reaction to the division of that country with Russia’s sponsorship in 2014.

Mr Putin wrote an essay on this subject last year: Ukraine, he argued, is a fabrication; its very existence divides the Russian people. This is revanchist ethno-nationalism of a type we’ve seen many times before, and history teaches us that it is unwise to indulge in appeasement. Mr Putin has already meddled in Georgia, Crimea and the Donbass. Where will he stop? This does not mean direct military involvement by the West, rather supporting Ukraine materially and setting out a list of sanctions that would make life intolerable for the Kremlin if it invaded. The fact that some European nations have been reluctant to do even this shows the price one pays for over-reliance on Russian gas, as well as a general loss of nerve since the Cold War that has allowed dictatorships to resurface and reassert their malign influence.

The fate of eastern Europe is very much our business, and Britain ought to be commended by the community of free nations for taking a lead.