Our tolerance of Russian corruption in Britain fatally clouded our judgment

Seduced by money, and then isolated by Brexit, the UK has foregone its chance to lead in the response to the Ukraine crisis

Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news

Unless a miracle occurs, we are witnessing the destruction of Ukraine as a free and democratic state of 44 million citizens at the hands of a dictator. Vladimir Putin refers to Ukraine as a dagger pointed at the heart of Russia" not because of any military threat it has ever posed to his country, but because of the values its form of governance represents.

For the west, this is the biggest failure of statecraft and deterrence since 1939. No one in the UK government should be surprised at what has happened. I remember sitting round the table of the National Security Council in 2014 after Putin's violent annexation of the Crimea, where we concluded that, in the light of this gross violation of international law, he would repeat such an action if given a chance.