Britain’s insistence on total Ukrainian victory was misguided – it’s time for a realistic compromise | Robert Skidelsky

By refusing to back negotiations for the past three years, the UK has become irrelevant to the search for peace – we must change course

On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, British policy towards the war is in a mess. The continuing official British position, echoed by all the main media, has been “no peace without a Ukraine victory” – meaning, centrally, the expulsion of Russia from all territories seized since 2014. President Trump’s active search for a compromise peace tears up this script.

When a long, consistently pursued policy ends in a shambles, it is time to reflect on what was right and what was wrong about it, and what might still be done to reinsert Britain into a process to which it has become largely irrelevant.

Robert Skidelsky is a crossbench peer in the House of Lords and author of Keynes: the Return of the Master and co-author of How Much Is Enough?

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