Editorial: It is good to see Joe Biden give long-range missiles to Ukraine, and let's hope he gives more aid before leaving office

​One thing President Joe Biden and the former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have got right is their unwavering support for Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is not just a man who suppresses democracy and free speech and murders political opponents, on foreign soil if need be, but he is the worst European warmonger since 1945.

President elect Donald Trump does not see this. Instead, the incoming president lashes out at trusted friends and allies of the United States if one of their leaders dares to say a critical word about him. And he lets himself be flattered by the west’s most mortal enemies.

Mr Trump has made clear that he cares not a jot for Taiwan, and shows no apparent understanding of what a catastrophe it will be if that country falls to Beijing. But then the west more widely has been indifferent to the horror show in Hong Kong, in which another beacon of democracy, free speech and uber successful capitalism has been crushed by China into yet another suppressed region in which you cannot so much as commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square mass murder of students.

One glimmer of hope is that Mr Trump seems – you can never be sure with him – to be unwavering in his support for that first world, hyper civilisation Israel against the Islamic barbarians of Hezbollah and Hamas and their blood-soaked Iranian sponsors. In contrast to Starmer, who – disgracefully – would fulfil the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s bid to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the request is ratified, thus treating Israel and Hamas as equivalents.

But in light of the coming betrayal of Kiev, it is good that President Biden has pledged to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles to use against Russia. There are still two more months of his administration. Let’s hope he can get much more military aid to that country before President Trump takes charge.