Russia started the war. Don’t forget that

It is easy to become frustrated when politicians make statements that are blindingly obvious. Sometimes, however, it can be a useful corrective, a reminder of fundamental truths that commentary can obscure.

Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.

These remarks to the media by Keir Starmer yesterday were prompted by Vladimir Putin. The Russian president, eternally the injured party in international relations, had warned that if Britain and America lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-supplied munitions, it would ‘mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries – the US and European countries – in the war in Ukraine’.

It is of course a wild distortion of the truth, a typically Putinesque mirror representation of what is happening. The changes the West could make are minor, and go no further than our current stance of alliance with Ukraine and the supply of military and economic assistance.