Another fortnight, another British Prime Minister, but there is one firm point of continuity: Ukraine. Keir Starmer’s last day in office was spent in Kyiv, where as a parting gift he announced another £255 million of funding, reaffirming his ‘unwavering’ support for the war effort. Just seven days after Andy Burnham took office, he hosted President Zelensky as his first international visitor, intoning that Britain was still ‘one hundred percent’ behind him. The signal to the Euro-Atlantic establishment was clear. Whichever fraction of the British political class happens to be in government — Johnson or Sunak, Starmer or Burnham — they will continue this endless proxy war.

These incantations are becoming increasingly absurd as the conflict drags on inconclusively. John Healey, now pulling the nation’s pursestrings, has said that the defence of Britain begins in Ukraine. The House of Commons Library estimated that Britain’s financial assistance to the country as of February of this year was £21.8 billion, with £13.06 billion in military financing. This includes offensive military equipment and long range strike capabilities. In 2024 Starmer allowed Ukraine to use British-French Storm Shadow missiles to strike deep into Russia, in what amounted to a significant escalation. NATO weapons and intelligence are used by the Ukrainians to strike energy facilities, warehouses and other targets on Russian territory.

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Nor can one find mainstream discussion of the dangers posed by the intense proxy war we are waging. Were Russia providing long-range weaponry to a third country striking energy facilities and cities within Britain, we would of course be at war by now. What happens if Russia decides to end its policy of containing the conflict to Ukraine and to strike at NATO weapons depositories in Poland and Romania? We already know the answer. Armies start wars and citizens finish them. It may be in the interests of the British political class to pursue a policy of escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed Great Power — if only to please Washington — but it is not in ours.

That’s why peace advocates should be pushing for an end to the proxy war with Russia as soon as possible. While we will get little hearing in Parliament or in the mainstream press, that makes it all the more necessary to raise our voices above the throng of reckless jingoists. A foreign policy rooted in the interests of the British people would support a negotiated end to the conflict and an immediate halt on weapons and funding to Ukraine. For the past four and a half years, those committed to this unwinnable war have been on the moral high ground. It’s about time that we dislodged them.