THE UKRAINIAN FLAG AND ITS COLOURS are proliferating across the British landscape, virtual and real. They are to be seen fluttering above town halls, on people’s social media pages, at football grounds, illuminating buildings, while outside the gates of a fishmongers in Shoreham a massive shrimp has been repainted blue and yellow, its pincers now holding a Molotov (prawn!) cocktail.
Accompanying such visual displays has been an outpouring of fundraising efforts, a generosity of spirit washing across the nation. Simultaneously, businesses, universities, local and district councils are actively severing ties with Russia, often far beyond the requirements of official sanctions.
“We stand with Ukraine,” say the banners. Indeed, there is a pervasive sense in which — at least for the moment — we are all Ukrainians now. Solidarity and sympathy with a victim nation is understandable, alongside outrage and concern at an unexpectedly aggressive Russian action.
Strategically, military planners possibly spy an interest in sucking Russia into a drawn out quagmire, depleting its military resources, sapping its morale, and in so doing bolstering Western power. Yet notions of sympathy and strategic incentives don’t fully capture the generalised mood of emotional investment and angst, but also projective consummation at the prospect of reflected glory deriving from the conflict.
From Finlandisation to Europeanisation
for Ukraine is not self-evident. Ever since the end of the Cold War, Ukraine has suffered widespread corruption and failed to fully meet European and Western standards of governance. In 2016 the EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, suggested a time horizon of 20-25 years for both EU and NATO membership. Indeed, luminaries of Western strategic thinking, such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, at least since 2014, have argued that Ukraine would be better off recognising itself as a geopolitical buffer. It should “Finlandise”, something also recently suggested by President Macron. Today, though, the situation is very different. For instance, the initial days of the conflict were marked by Western
