Editorial: Assistance for Ukraine should never have been stopped

​Last evening it was emerging that the US was immediately restoring intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

The US state department issued a statement that Ukraine in turn was prepared to enact an immediate, temporary ceasefire.

The proposed ceasefire is subject to acceptance and implementation by Russia, and will be extendable by agreement of both warring parties.

This will enable a continuation of exploratory peace talks. America is said to be prepared to reinstate not just intelligence sharing but security assistance. The announcement came at talks between Ukraine and the US in Saudi Arabia.

All of this is welcome. The Russo-Ukraine war has been a calamity in which unknown numbers of people, mostly young men, have been killed, at least in the low hundreds of thousands.

President Trump has almost single handedly forced Europe to increase its radically inadequate expenditure on defence. This is something for which he deserves great credit. European leaders in contrast are damned by their failures – three years after the Russian invasion they had not moved. However, President Trump’s recent rhetoric on the war has been shameful, giving a massive moral boost to that crooked invader Putin. Polling shows a sudden drop in British public support for the idea of America as our closest big ally, with far more people now citing France or Germany.

Then to abandon Ukraine to attacks by suddenly withdrawing intelligence sharing was even worse. Meanwhile, President Trump has been alienating close allies such as Canada with his tariff war.

Steve Aiken MLA, a former submarine commander, opposite says that Ukraine has benefited from time to bolster its military. Europe, he says, can quickly become militarily powerful and easily able to defend itself.

Meanwhile, a temporary ceasefire and resumed aid to Ukraine is good news.