Bandages and blankets won’t stop bloodshed in Ukraine

Ukraine’s citizens are fighting bravely against a ruthless aggressor and have been betrayed by the West who has abandoned them to their fate, write Petr Kolar and Juraj Mesík.

In 1938, when British prime minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich proclaiming “peace in our time”, Winston Churchill famously denounced the decision Britain and France had just made. “You were given the choice between war and dishonour,” he said. “You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Sadly, British prime minister David Cameron, French president François Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and US president Barack Obama, facing a similar choice in Ukraine, have chosen dishonour as well. Now it is Ukraine that is getting the war, while Europe stands aside, even as its security is undermined and its values mocked.