AS we approach the anniversary of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on 24 February last year, it’s appropriate to reflect on 12 months of conflict.

Russia’s President Putin believes that Ukraine is part of Russia.

The fact that 92.3 per cent of Ukrainians voted for independence more than 30 years ago matters not a jot to him.

Ludicrously, he even denounced Ukraine’s democratically elected Jewish President as a Nazi!

Despite months of preparation and the element of surprise as to where and when Russia would strike, Putin’s belief that it would win what he called a “special military operation” in 72 hours, seizing the capital Kyiv and overrunning the country, provoked ferocious Ukrainian resistance. This exposed both Russian over-confidence and staggering levels of military incompetence.

Russia is more than 28 times the size of Ukraine, had a military budget in 2021 twelvefold that of Ukraine and has a population almost four times larger. Yet Ukraine has held firm, through the heroism and sacrifices of its people.

After a few weeks, Russia retreated, leaving in its wake wrecked towns and villages, civilians dead, raped and tortured.

Such crimes led only to even greater Ukrainian determination to defeat and expel the invaders.

The war became one of attrition in eastern Ukraine, with towns pulverised by Russian artillery.

And yet in both September and in November, Ukrainian counter-offensives broke through Russian lines, liberating thousands of square kilometres of territory.

Once again however, stalemate ensued, with Russia using convicts and conscripts as cannon fodder to inch forward whilst bombing Ukraine’s infrastructure; cutting off water, electricity and heating in a cowardly campaign aimed at terrorising civilians, millions of whom have fled as refugees.

Western nations, having virtually ignored Putin’s seizure of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014, rallied round but only enough weapons have been provided to stop Ukraine losing.

The tanks, aircraft and ordinance needed to expel Putin’s forces have not been supplied.

Indeed, Ukraine is not permitted to fire western munitions into Russia, meaning every missile and shell falls in Ukraine, damaging it further and allowing Russia to move ammunition, weapons and fuel to the border without fear of attack.

At Westminster last week, President Zelensky served a wake-up call.

For Ukraine to win, further military, economic and diplomatic assistance is crucial if the conflict is not to drag on for years, with huge loss of life.

This support must also include sanctioning more of Putin’s cronies, who launder money in the UK, commit fraud and have donated millions to the Tory party.

Ukraine is not only fighting for its own freedom, but for all democratic nations, given the likelihood that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won’t stop there.

Russia’s strategy of shattering the European order has been clear for years, yet the West was caught off-guard because it has no strategy of its own.

Western nations must support the recovery of Ukraine’s lost, internationally recognised territories.

Doing so is not only right, it will ultimately enhance our own peace and security.