ALL through 2023 the conflict in Ukraine has been drifting towards deadlock. As the year draws to a close the military positions remain very much where they were at its start.
The much-hyped Ukrainian spring-summer offensive has made little difference beyond the waste of further lives and resources. That will not have surprised many military authorities, who pointed out that Ukraine’s armed forces lacked the margin of superiority generally needed for a successful offensive.
While the Russian army’s defensive performance has clearly improved on the blundering that marked the first months after the invasion of February 2022, neither does it display any great offensive capacity.
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT
While 69 per cent of Ukrainians want negotiated peace, Western leaders are cynically prolonging the war for their own strategic and economic goals, to the immense detriment of Ukraine and Europe, write BOB ORAM and MAGGIE SIMPSON
Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES


