Biden is a diplomatic liability. He’s playing into Putin’s hands | Simon Jenkins

Zelenskiy is a master of mobilising his nation's defence. But his plight must not become a plaything of western politics

An iron maxim of war is to imagine what your enemy most wants you to do, and not to do it. Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is floundering. He has lied to the Russian people to justify it. He has told them it is not Ukraine but Nato and the west that seek their defeat and his overthrow. That is why they must support him in his fight. To a large extent they have done so.

Nato has so far been scrupulous in not playing Putin's game. It has stood aloof from active military support to Ukraine's President Zelenskiy, as have its individual member countries.