Links 17: Ukraine/Russia special edition

Putin gets aggressive

Germany proposes United States of Europe

The new German government is proposing a united states of Europe. This very likely won't happen in the short term, but moves to increase European centralisation on defence and foreign policy may well happen, which is good because of threats from Russia and China.

One good thing about Brexit is it has removed from the EU a country that was a permanent dog-in-the-manger, always preventing more centralised co-ordination of European foreign and security policy.

Sweden and Finland consider joining NATO

Caspian Report notes that support for NATO membership is rising in Sweden and Finland

If these countries do join NATO, it will be because of Russian aggression. Russia will complain, but it will be all their fault. They are like a playground bully who complains that none of the other children want to play with them.

Cyberattack on Ukraine

France 24 reports on a cyberattack on Ukraine:

The start of a new round of Russian aggression?

Raab thinks Russia will invade Ukraine

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab thinks there's a "very significant risk" that Russia will invade Ukraine.

One thing UK could do -- and is doing -- is sending weapons to help Ukraine defend itself.

But if UK defence policy was more sensibly run, we would be able to send them a lot more weapons. For example the UK used to use the Swingfire heavy ATGW (which has a range of 4000 m) and the Milan medium ATGW (range 2000 m). The UK got rid of them in the 2000's, replacing them with the newer (and more Expensive) Javelin missile. But they are still capable weapons and used by multiple countries. What Britain should have done is placed the weapons into storage, so they could be used if need be. Then they would be able to gift them to Ukraine during the present emergency, where they would be very effective since both weapons were designed to destroy Russian tanks.

But in this as in many many other things, UK policy has been hopelessly incompetent. If Scotland becomes independent, while I'm sure future Scottish governments will make mistakes (all governments do), I cannot imagine they would ever be as incompetent and useless as Westminster is.

How well defended is Ukraine?

Covert Cabal takes a detailed look at Ukraine's defenses:

Johnson on Ukraine

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also been talking about Ukraine:

Boris Johnson said on Saturday that if Western nations fail to live up to their promises to support Ukraine's independence, that would have damaging consequences worldwide, including for Taiwan.

"Every time that Western ministers have visited Kiev, we have assured the people of Ukraine and their leaders that we stand four-square behind their sovereignty and independence," Johnson told a security conference in Munich. "If Ukraine is endangered, the shock will echo around the world. And those echoes will be heard in east Asia, will be heard in Taiwan," he added. "People would draw the conclusion that aggression pays, and that might is right."

Johnson is of course right here: if Ukraine falls, China is much more likely to invade Taiwan.

But he's the Prime Minister. He shouldn't just be talking about the dangers, he should do something about them.

Finland likens Putin to Stalin

President Sauli Niinisto of Finland notes that Stalin threatened Finland in 1939, before invading, in an effort to divide the people:

Finland's president on Saturday compared Russia's current treatment of Ukraine to an attempt by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to threaten and divide Finland before invading in 1939.

"Stalin thought that he will split the nation and it's easy to go and invade Finland. Totally the opposite happened. People united, and we see the same in Ukraine."

Stalin also murdered 10 million Ukrainians by deliberate starvation. Aggression and atrocities by Russia are not a new phenomenon.

Zelensky criticises Western appeasement

Volodymyr Zelensky isn't happy with the West's inaction over Russian aggression towards Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a searing criticism of Western inaction against Russian aggression on Saturday, arguing that Ukraine has acted as a "shield" for the past eight years and that Europe's security architecture has utterly failed.

Why it matters: Zelensky's closely watched address to the Munich Security Conference came just one day after President Biden warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine, and that he plans to target Kyiv.

Zelensky is right not to be. The West isn't acting in Ukraine's interests, but more importantly isn't acting in its own interests either. This is because the West's leaders, such as Biden and Johnson, are mentally feeble cowards.