Keir Starmer's message to Vladimir Putin that UK will 'stand with Ukraine' is vital, as general election looms – Scotsman comment

US Republicans and Donald Trump are providing succour to an enemy of democracy by playing political games over military support for Ukraine

Keir Starmer’s visit to British troops in Estonia was designed to send several messages, including that the service of our soldiers is valued and, with an election looming, that the Labour leader has Prime Ministerial qualities. It is, after all, the sort of Christmas trip that Rishi Sunak should have made.

However, the most important message from the visit was not directed towards anyone in the UK but, instead, the dictator in the Kremlin. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to win,” Starmer said. If Ukraine falls, Estonia and its fellow Nato members Latvia and Lithuania know that they could well be next on Vladimir Putin’s hit list.

Shamefully, US Republicans’ decision to play politics with vital American aid for Ukraine has provided fresh hope to Putin. The prospect of victory for Donald Trump in the presidential election next November also gives Putin a reason to keep fighting. The man who Russian hackers and social media bots worked so hard for in the 2016 election has suggested, in his slippery way, that he might cut off military support entirely.

In May, Trump said: “I want everybody to stop dying… And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” There are few ways that an American president could stop the war, but cutting off aid to Ukraine would be one potential method. So when he added, “we’re giving away so much equipment, we don’t have ammunition for ourselves right now”, the implication was fairly clear, although also deniable.

In addition to the military threat posed by Putin’s forces, Starmer warned about the risk of other forms of interference, clearly referring to attempts to influence the coming election. There was, he said, a “real and constant threat from Russia, measured in years, and measured back home in the UK as well”.

Defending democracy at home or on the frontlines in Ukraine is all part of the same endeavour, and it is one that every politician who subscribes to democratic principles should be steadfastly behind. Given Labour’s current lead in the polls, Starmer’s message to Putin will be heard: whatever America does, Britain stands with Ukraine.