One of the frustrations of watching as Ukraine is lashed by Russian bombs is the apparent lack of a joined-up response by governments across the world.
Plenty of stern words have been thrown around at the United Nations Security Council, all to no effect.
Politicians of all nationalities and ideological inclinations are never off the TV, pronouncing on the illegality of Vladimir Putin's war and the penalties for violating the Fourth Geneva Convention by targeting civilians, as Russian forces are accused of doing. You need not be a tenured chair in international law to know Putin will never see the inside of an international court.
That is not to say that nothing is being done. A succession of Western nations have applied robust economic sanctions, albeit some were quicker off the mark than others. The problem is that for every encouraging move taken by our government and the governments of other countries there seems to be a backwards step elsewhere.
The UK began arming the Ukrainians early on, supplying the anti-tank missiles that allowed their forces to repel Russia’s initial incursions, but other European countries vacillated too long. Once the scale of the refugee crisis became evident, the Republic of Ireland came forward with a generous offer to take in displaced Ukrainians but the UK Home Office was slow to act and remains overly burdened by self-imposed bureaucracy.
President Joe Biden rebuffed Poland’s offer to donate its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via the Americans’ Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Having already effectively conceded that the US would not establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, President Biden additionally denied Kyiv the resources to defend itself from the air.
No one should welcome the risk of a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia but amidst the sensible caution there is more than a little fecklessness posing in the guise of realism. Whatever the outcome in Ukraine, I think we could all do with rather less American presidential talk about being the leader of the free world.
While the response by national governments and the UN has been uneven at best, the response from ordinary people has shown none of the same hesitation or calculation. If the Ukrainians have been failed by international institutions, they have certainly not been failed by people from far and wide, who, though powerless in the political and military sense, have mounted an effort on behalf of Ukraine marked by boundless generosity and a humanitarian spirit. We have seen this here in the UK, where Britons from all walks of life have refused to turn a blind eye to desperate people in need of help.
Across Britain, individuals and community groups have risen to the task. Scottish Preloved Baby Box, which began as a Facebook post by Airdrie woman Jackie Crawford barely a fortnight ago, is now sending thousands of boxes of baby essentials to the frontline. Mossgiel Organic Farm in Mauchline has so far sent three lorries full of donated goods to Ukraine. Pupils at Blackheath Prep, a private school in south-east London, have donated more than £2,000 plus food and toiletries to the Ukraine Appeal run by Lewisham Polish Centre.
Sir Andy Murray long ago captured Scottish hearts with his on-the-court heroics but his status as national treasure has only been confirmed by the news that he will be donating this year’s winnings to the children of Ukraine. JK Rowling has pledged to match donations up to £1m after her charity, the Lumos Foundation, launched a fundraising drive. Daily Mail readers have given a remarkable £7m to the Mail Force Ukraine Refugee Appeal.
Faith organisations, typically at the forefront of charitable giving, have stepped up too, and not only national groups. In every corner of the country you can find churches, mosques, synagogues and temples boxing up grocery tins and children’s teddy bears destined for Ukraine and its exiles in Poland and elsewhere. Corpus Christi Parish Church in Calderbank, Airdrie is accepting new baby clothes, nappies, medicines and toys and has also held a special collection.
West London Synagogue in Westminster is collecting donations of tinned food, new toiletries and first aid kits. Worshippers at the Muslim Cultural Centre in Wollaton, Nottingham are donating goods as part of an effort spearheaded by a Polish-born member of the mosque who wanted to do something to help.
Some are gathering and delivering supplies directly to the Ukrainian border. Tim Bradshaw is a former British Army intelligence officer who serves as head of operations for a training company, Sandstone Communications, which goes into schools with its #BecauseICan campaign. The idea is to encourage young people to set aside doubts and excuses and go for their goals.
Tim was moved by the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and, along with his amateur motorcycle rally team, decided to put some of the lessons he had been passing on to schoolchildren into action. He and his team spent the weekend collecting donations of sleeping bags, meals and first aid kits, including at the Scottish Motorcycle Show in Edinburgh.
The outpouring of support from businesses and members of the public has been overwhelming. Just one company, the Scottish camping equipment manufacturer Vango, has donated 5,000 meals and 230 sleeping bags, which Tim and his team will now transport to the Polish-Ukrainian border with tow vehicles donated by other companies.
Tim tells me: ‘We live in a world where people talk too much and find problems in everything. We originally started the #BecauseICan campaign because we felt people were always finding reasons not to do things. #BecauseICan teaches you to make things happen. So, we saw what was happening in Ukraine and knew we could do something about it. And because we can, we should.’
There are armies that come in tanks and fighter jets, bearing arms and tactical support, and our revulsion towards war should not cause us to resent them and the military power they represent. Military power, used properly and for just ends, is more often about protecting lives than it is about taking them. Military power, quite frankly, is all that is standing in the way of Russia-bordering Nato members like Estonia and Latvia and the revanchist ambitions of Vladimir Putin.
But there are other kinds of armies, whose headquarters are church halls and charity shop back rooms and whose infantries are retired nurses and young mums who meet on playdates. Their matériel comes not from defence contractors but from shops, suppliers and small businesses eager to do their part and the rest of their armaments are bought by pensioners sending in precious tenners and school children pulling their pocket money together to help strangers in need.
The only mission these armies have is to alleviate the suffering of innocents and the only territory they aim to conquer is that hardened patch of the human heart that too often convinces us to look the other way.
Humanitarian armies are to the forefront in the Ukraine crisis because of the sheer outrageousness of Putin’s actions. There are conflicts raging all over the world but many are complex affairs of disputed causes, shared culpability and enmities stretching back decades or centuries.
Ukraine has captured the world’s attention not simply because it is a European country, as some observers charge, but because Russia’s invasion was so plainly unprovoked, launched against a neighbour which had not attacked it, and was ordered by a tyrant who openly denies Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign, democratic state.
The reason this has cut through with ordinary people is not ‘Eurocentrism’ or anything else so hateful but because few conflicts since World War II have involved such clear lines of right and wrong.
There is little any of us can do to influence the decisions taken in the corridors of power the world over. Prime ministers and presidents must balance a great many interests, including those we might not be fully aware of yet.
But even as the encumbrances of realpolitik limit what governments can do militarily, they should not and do not set the parameters of the good individuals, families, faith groups and businesses can do.
We all have our own small measure of power and giving money, food and other essentials to the people of Ukraine is how we can best wield it right now.
Originally published in the Scottish Daily Mail on March 14, 2022.
Surely, with Sturgeon's deep concern for the people of Ukraine (who are NOT English, a new Scottish government study finds), she should follow the courageous example of the Polish PM and others who took the train to Kiev.
It is surely unlikely that Alex Salmond would find out about this, and be able to send Mr Putin train times and map references. Or would that be too much to hope?
One simply journey into martyrdom would erase all those years of Putin-like behaviour in Scotland. She deserves no less. Slava Govani! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-0n-EgXJbE
Surely, with Sturgeon's deep concern for the people of Ukraine (who are NOT English, a new Scottish government study finds), she should follow the courageous example of the Polish PM and others who took the train to Kiev.
It is surely unlikely that Alex Salmond would find out about this, and be able to send Mr Putin train times and map references. Or would that be too much to hope?
One simply journey into martyrdom would erase all those years of Putin-like behaviour in Scotland. She deserves no less. Slava Govani!