Ukraine crisis a test that Britain – and Johnson – dare not fail

Analysis: Diplomatic network hoping to show UK is not turning into a global irrelevance

The Russian threat to Ukraine may be the first major foreign policy crisis since Brexit in which the UK can play to its strengths, and show that Britain with its military muscle is not turning into the global irrelevance that many had predicted. That at least is the hope in parts of Whitehall.

The two other big post-Brexit foreign policy moments - the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the announcement of the Aukus security partnership in the Indo-Pacific - did not exactly see Britain in the cockpit in the same way. The UK departed from Afghanistan under US duress and then executed that withdrawal so chaotically that it cost Dominic Raab his foreign secretaryship. Aukus was largely a US-Australian deal, even if puts the UK in a potentially leading role in the Indo-Pacific in future.