There is no doubt that Russia no more needs to annex Ukraine than Ukraine needs to annex Russia. But there is a lot of history supporting Ukraine as part of a Soviet dynasty, unfortunately including my mother’s ancestry which grew up in a Ukrainian shtetl subject to the pogroms not infrequently visited upon the poverty stricken residents.

Today we are witnessing fear instead of logic. Is there a sustainable argument? Russia in the eyes of Vladimir Putin envisages the expansion eastward  of the NATO bloc by embracing Ukraine, geographically logical but economically unwise, if not foolish.  Although the invasion of Ukraine seems to have encouraged, even provoked, Sweden and Finland seriously to consider joining the NATO bloc.

Today’s political scene is fraught with uncertainty. It makes all of us insecure.