Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the West has made a series of fatal assumptions. That liberal democracy had triumphed over totalitarianism.
That the world had adopted our values of peace and individual freedom.
That the bloody swords of yesteryear would be turned into ploughshares in a new globalised world of guaranteed growth and prosperity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured speaking at a press conference earlier this week
And, above all, that the threat of a European war involving nuclear powers had been banished for good.
Today, in the most shattering manner, we learn just how complacent and delusional those assumptions have been.
While we have been busy congratulating ourselves and wasting energy in absurd cultural and commercial squabbles, tyranny has been relentlessly on the march.
And while our commitment to maintaining a strong military capability has been half-hearted at best, our enemies are in deadly earnest.
Vladimir Putin demonstrated just how deadly yesterday, as he launched Blitzkrieg on Ukraine by land, sea and air.
Even though the drumbeat to war had in recent days become deafening, who among us was not shocked to wake up to terrifying headlines announcing the full-scale invasion?
And if that wasn’t sufficiently chilling, the president’s astonishing, rambling, warmongering rant certainly was.
Any country tempted to stand in Russia’s way, he warned, faced retaliation that would ‘lead you to consequences you have never encountered in your history’.
Not since World War II has our continent seen a darker day.
Boris Johnson speaking to MPs following Russia’s invasion on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday morning
In this paper last Saturday, MI5 chief Ken McCallum warned we were in a historic struggle to defend our very way of life. How prescient he has proved to be.
In this terrible act of aggression the echoes of history are unfolding before our eyes.
Until now, the West’s response to this crisis has been utterly abject. Diplomacy has failed miserably.
The pantomime of Western presidents and chancellors rushing obligingly to Moscow in recent weeks to be humiliated by Putin one by one was deeply unedifying.
Like a malevolent puppeteer, he blithely made them dance on their strings. With a straight face, he brazenly lied, strenuously denying he had plans to invade.
How foolish he has made them all look — none more so than preening French leader Emmanuel Macron, who hubristically declared he had brokered a deal between Moscow and Washington, only to see it disintegrate within hours.
By launching his attack, however, Putin has excommunicated himself from the international community of civilised nations, and Russia is now a pariah state.
The question on the world’s lips now is: How far will this ruthless and vain megalomaniac go?
Today, it’s Ukraine that is paying the price of Western weakness. But Putin has grandiose territorial ambitions.
His stated dream is to reconstitute the Soviet Union. So where will he turn his guns tomorrow? The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? Georgia? Moldova?
And if — or, more likely, when — he does, what will be our response? Does free Europe and the U.S. have the resolve to stop him in his tracks?
Putin is gambling that the answer is ‘no’. And after Western forces not so much left Afghanistan as scarpered ignominiously for the exit, who can blame him?
The truth is, it is little wonder the Kremlin shows such contempt for the West’s threats. In the past, there has been such pathetically little substance to back them up.
In the past decade alone, Putin has annexed Crimea, shot down a civilian airliner, supported Syrian despot Assad and poisoned the Skripals in Salisbury.
And what was his punishment for that litany of outrages? Embarrassingly feeble sanctions and a diplomatic slap on the wrist which had no discernible deterrent effect whatsoever.
10 Downing Street with Ukraine’s national colours, blue and yellow, projected onto it in a show of solidarity
But perhaps, finally, a hard rain is going to fall.
Boris Johnson captured the sombre, yet defiant, mood (and, dare we say, how far from the trivialities of Partygate — which sections of the nation lost its mind over — this now seems).
In Churchillian terms, he condemned Putin’s ‘hideous and barbaric venture’, adding: ‘He will never be able to cleanse the blood of Ukraine from his hands.’
Significantly, he warned that Britain would act ‘diplomatically, politically, economically and — eventually — militarily’ to tame the dictator.
After all, there is no point arguing — as some inevitably will — that Ukraine is a long way away and events there are none of our business. For that is to ignore history.
Eighty-four years ago, with his hollow proclamation of ‘peace for our time’, Chamberlain emboldened Hitler by confirming that the Allies would never stand up to him.
Decisions taken now, in response to Russia’s invasion, will determine whether 2022 goes down in history as a comparable year of shame.
It is time to match strident rhetoric with tough actions and hit the bloodstained bandit and his cronies in the most sensitive part of their anatomy — their wallets. On that score, this paper welcomes the Prime Minister’s pledge to impose far tougher sanctions.
More than 100 firms and oligarchs will be barred from Britain. Mega-rich individuals will have bank deposits capped.
Putin’s kleptocratic pals have a penchant for buying houses, shopping and sending their children to England’s private schools.
But if Russia is determined to be Europe’s enemy, we should treat them as such. We didn’t allow the Nazi elite to educate their offspring or own property here during World War II.
French President Emmanuel Macron pictured in a meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow earlier this month
Meanwhile, all major Russian banks will be kneecapped with an asset freeze and excluded from the UK financial system. And flights from Aeroflot — Russia’s flag carrier — will be banned from landing on British soil.
This is a very useful start. It will tighten the squeeze on Russia’s basket-case economy and make it more difficult for Putin to fund a prolonged military campaign. But what if the tyrant refuses to hold back from further violations of the international order?
Mr Johnson wants to suspend Russia from the Swift international financial payment system, which would bring its economy to a shuddering halt.
The U.S., which has taken a firm stand and unveiled harsher punishments, agrees. Yet, indefensibly, the move was blocked after an abject surrender by Germany and Italy, who selfishly fret it will damage their own banks.
To successfully recreate a Tsarist empire, Putin must drive wedges between Western nations — weakening our collective unity.
By cravenly putting the avoidance of short-term financial pain before standing up for democratic values, Berlin and Rome have done just that. It is truly contemptible.
This crisis has starkly exposed Europe’s perilous dependence on Russian energy. It must end. This addiction is Putin’s biggest financial and political trump card.
Without it, his power would crumble and his country would be beggared.
Of course, the war will deal a blow to Britain’s economy. Higher petrol, energy and food prices will hit people’s pockets — worsening the cost of living crisis. But for freedom’s sake, we must be prepared to bear the pain — and do so for the long haul.
Activists holding up placards and Ukrainian flags as they gather in Washington DC’s Lafayette Square to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
With luck, Mr Johnson gave Putin pause for thought — and stiffened the sinews of our partners — by vowing to use military force if a Nato nation is attacked. But we ask: how can Britain expect to be taken seriously when our Armed Forces have been cut, cut and cut again?
Nevertheless, while the war in Ukraine is a catastrophe, for the West the situation could be indescribably worse.
Had Sir Keir Starmer got his way at the 2019 election, Kremlin-sympathising, Nato-hating Jeremy Corbyn might now be in Downing Street.
In his fight against democracy, sovereignty and the right of people to choose their own destiny, Putin would have had an ally of unprecedented value.
Mercifully, thanks to the common sense and decency of the British electorate, he hasn’t. Now it is imperative he fails in his warmongering. We must strain every fibre to ensure he does.
A final thought: conflict in Europe is frightening enough for Britons thousands of miles away.
For the people of Ukraine, it is more than a hypothetical discussion: it is a terrifying reality, with shells falling, blood spilled, families torn apart, and lives ruined. As frightened masses flee their homes seeking safety, the continent must brace itself for a huge refugee crisis.
The Ukrainian people are victims of a monstrous act of war. Britain has a solemn duty to offer them all the steel and succour we can.
