Does it matter if Ukraine loses?

In war, the ‘right’ side does not always win. Franco’s Nationalists won the Spanish Civil War; the Taliban drove the West out of Afghanistan. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said recently that without more US help, Ukraine would lose the war. The commander of Ukrainian forces, Oleksandr Syrskyy, warned on April 13^th that the situation in the east of the country had deteriorated significantly. Even if the aid belatedly approved by the US House of Representatives on April 20^tharrives in the next few weeks, democratic Ukraine could still be defeated by authoritarian Russia. Western countries – especially European countries – need to decide how much this matters to them. At present, some, such as the Baltic states, are doing all they can to ensure that Russia does not win. A few, such as Hungary, seem to be actively working against Ukraine. But for most countries, there is a sizeable gap between leaders’ rhetoric, proclaiming support for Ukraine, and their revealed priorities, in terms of defence spending, weapons delivery and willingness to talk honestly to their domestic audience about the war.