The US has sold Ukraine down the river – and shown Britain what ‘America first’ means in practice | Gaby Hinsliff

A superpower that once built alliances across the west is dramatically reorienting itself - and so too must its former allies

Wrapped in a flag and clutching a beer, Marc Fogel looked understandably overwhelmed. The 63-year-old teacher from Pennsylvania was safe at last, freed via prisoner exchange from the Russian jail where he served three and a half years for possessing the marijuana his family says he took for back pain. His homecoming this week was just the kind of heartwarming scene Donald Trump needs to show ordinary Americans that cosying up to Vladimir Putin's murderous regime could pay off, and the president himself said he hoped it marked the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war" in Ukraine.

Or to put it another way, hours later his new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, was in Brussels dictating the effective terms of Ukraine's surrender, over Ukrainian heads and on terms that a former head of MI6 has called a golden opportunity" for Putin to walk away.