Ukraine, you don't need to thank us!
On the train to Kyiv last week, a Ukrainian thanked me for supporting her country. I told her she was mistaken: the world should in fact be thanking Ukraine. "We give weapons, but you give lives," I explained. Her surprise was replaced with a bit of pride.
The recent request from British and American government politicians for Ukraine to be thankful shows a blinkered view because it disregards the existential risk facing Western democracy and ignores Ukraine’s courage in fighting democracy’s current enemy number one. At the Nato summit on Tuesday, UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, both called for more gratitude from Ukraine, with Wallace saying the UK is not an Amazon for weapons.
Wallace and Sullivan are wrong. Yes, Ukraine has had to fight for its own life, its freedom, and even its existence as a sovereign nation, but it has also been fighting a regime that threatens every value that we outside Ukraine cherish and still enjoy. So, every drop of Ukrainian blood has been shed for global benefit.
