Putin’s “magic money tree” is failing him when he needs it most. This is only going to get worse as the summer will further lessen demand and reduce prices. The price cap on oil exports has forced the Kremlin to tax domestic producers more, slowly eroding its capability to produce in the future. It's not as if all is well at home, either. In a signal humiliation, the defences of the Kremlin were apparently breached by a drone, while a much-vaunted Russian hypersonic missile, supposedly overmatching anything Nato could muster, was unceremoniously shot out of the sky by a US-provided Patriot missile system. Things are bad on the battlefield, and a quick scan of the headlines in the last month hints that far worse could be following. What was meant to be a “Special Military Operation” lasting a few weeks has turned into a 15-month military disaster for the Russian autocrat. And if we don’t enable Ukraine to finish the war this year, we will be storing up trouble for years to come. America and Europe must rally and give Kyiv everything it asks for this week long range missiles do no good on the shelves of warehouses when they could be blowing up Russian tanks. It’s all good stuff, but Britain’s lead must be followed by others. And, of course, there’s the offer of training for jet pilots. Today’s announcement has covered attack drones and air defence missiles last week, we saw the donation of Storm Shadow missile systems. With Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the UK meeting Rishi Sunak, British arms could soon enable the Ukrainian armed forces to deliver the killing blow.
The Russians are down, but not quite out.
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