The west’s calls for a total victory in Ukraine can lead only to ruinous escalation | Simon Jenkins

Whatever settlement is reached to end the war, it will be a compromise, no matter the talk of unwavering support

As war in Ukraine drifts out of the headlines, it reaches a point of maximum danger. Can the parties be led towards compromise and settlement, or will their desperation, coupled with war fever by nonparticipants, drive the conflict into wider escalation and risk of catastrophe?

The British government has offered Kyiv what it calls unwavering support. Boris Johnson has thus delegated his policy on Ukraine to Kyiv's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. This includes the ambition to drive Russian troops from all of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea and Donbas. Russia's weight of numbers is already making such total victory and a return to pre-2014 borders ever less plausible. It would also require a massive uplift in western aid over a long period of time. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has already dubbed it the US's proxy war against Russia.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist