Macron, the reverse Zelensky

Which Western leader has been the most shameless when it comes to Ukraine? America’s Vice President ‘Calamity’ Kamala Harris is another contender, given her bizarre, hysterical laughter when asked at a press conference about Kiev’s refugees. Nicola ‘Strangelove’ Sturgeon is up there, after her no-fly zone intervention while Mario Draghi looked like Marie Antoinette without her charms after reportedly demanding opt-outs from sanctions on luxury Italian goods.

But for Mr S, there’s only one winner. Step forth Emmanuel Macron, the politician whose pronouns are moi/moi/moi. The French president has not had a great war, trying to negotiate mano a mano with Putin down an absurdly long table and ending up being played like a banjo while attempting to make himself central to a fruitless Moscow-Paris grand geo-strategic conversation. Just days before the invasion, it appeared as though he was willing to give Putin major concessions and gut Ukraine; bombastic talk of ‘de-escalation’ proved optimistic, to say the least.