TODAY, a eulogy for Keir Starmer’s coalition of the willing.
The famed UK peacekeeping force for Ukraine is no more. At least according to a report in The Times this week which said the plans have been scaled back to the extent that Britain now aims to send a training force to operate in the corner of Ukraine furthest from the Russian border.
To claim this is anything like what was first proposed would be like claiming to be a professional athlete because you are a PE teacher.
Yet the nauseating nomenclature appears to live on, with sources telling the paper that the coalition of the willing – COW for people who don’t get outside enough – that the “risks are too high” to put active troops in the country; an assessment that was obvious to everyone not on the Government payroll when the hare-brained scheme was first proposed.
It seems they genuinely did not think it “risky” to range combat troops on the border of a hostile nuclear power.
Even more incredibly, The Times’s source also reveals that Britain’s forces are “inadequate for such a task”. Again, something which did not take a military expert to appreciate sooner than the people running the country.
But though the COW may be dead in all but name, Starmer’s dream lives on. He now apparently wants to put soldiers in the west of Ukraine where Operation Interflex – which has seen Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s troops trained at locations in East Anglia, Dorset and Loch Ewe – will be relocated.
All the while, Donald Trump still seeks to impose an extractive peace on Ukraine, hoping for a rapprochement with Russia, which he hopes will bring down energy prices.
It is this aspect of the story that merits real attention, not Starmer playing soldiers with the Europeans.
Trump appears desperate for the war to end, including recognising Crimea, annexed in 2014, as part of Russia – which is anathema to the Ukrainians, at least for now.
As if to underline Britain’s impotence in this sorry saga, a “peace summit” to be held in London on Wednesday was downgraded after US secretary of state Marco Rubio pulled out at the last minute.
Trump’s deal, which he wants to function as “compensation” for the military aid the US has sent to Ukraine, was meant to be signed by Saturday, though Moscow’s extensive bombing of Kyiv and other areas this week has dampened the president’s hopes.
As far as anyone can tell at the moment, the deal envisaged by the US does not include any safety guarantees: The Americans have previously argued that the mere presence of US industry bleeding Ukraine dry would deter any further Russian attacks.
This was where the COW were meant to come in, though they now appear to have been cowed.
In a fitting denouement for the humiliations of this week, Starmer was woken in the wee hours of Thursday morning by a toxic gas alert on HMS Prince of Wales. The engines were leaking poisonous fumes while the ship was being sailed out from Plymouth for a show of strength against China in the Indian Ocean. No, really.
It’s a shame for Starmer, this international humiliation. The international stage did, for his supporters, for a while, seem to be his natural arena. To the rest of us, it seemed like foolish posturing. Now, his reverse Midas touch, so obvious in domestic politics, appears to be showing up abroad, too.
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