Many in Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, have been clear for years about the threat posed by Putin’s distorted worldview.
According to the Institute for World Economy in Kiel, a think tank monitoring international aid, Estonia has given 220m euros to Ukraine since February 24th, the largest donor per capita. Lithuania and Poland are not far behind. Sweden and Finland have applied to join NATO.
Aid is not a competition, of course, but action speaks louder than words, especially when it comes to delivering promised weapons, as Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, is forced to admit.
Mr Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have been slandered for continuing to talk to Putin, although atrocities in Bucha and Irpen have come to light.
They argue that there should always be room for diplomacy, that jaw-jaw is better than war-jaw.
If it ever made sense, after Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and swarms of “little green men” in the eastern regions of Ukraine, this point has certainly been reached, now Putin has shown his true face in such a vainglorious style. .
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