Those of us who stand firmly behind Ukraine worry about the fatigue of the West: as the war drags on, will the countries which support Ukraine gradually tire of the permanent emergency state and the material sacrifices demanded of them?
This fatigue is not simply caused by having to endure sacrifices in money and materiel: it is also the result of the propaganda spread by the unholy alliance of the extreme right and the extreme left, propaganda that operates at three levels: abstract pacifism (we need peace, the suffering has to stop at any cost); a “balanced” view of the war (Nato’s eastward expansion provoked Russia and forced it to counterattack); and the need to protect our own national welfare (why should we give billions to Ukraine, a country run by corrupt oligarchs, when we have deep economic and problems of our own). The paradox of this combination is that what presents itself as a principled stance – peace at any price – is a mask for the worst ethnic egotism and ignorance of the other’s suffering: are we aware that, although Ukraine has defended its independence, it has already lost up to a third of its population through emigration, kidnapping and death?
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