Following the tragic death of Corporal George Hooley last week, the Media has highlighted the case of an ex-British soldier captured on the front line soon after joining the Ukrainian Foreign Legion last year. The UK’s Foreign Office statement demanding that Russia “stop using prisoners of war for political and propaganda purposes” reminds me that not much has changed since 1920, when the British soldiers in my book, Churchill’s Abandoned Prisoners, were deceived by Bolshevik Commissars and incarcerated in political prisons in Moscow.
However, this was not the main event this week. The news that the EU is providing more financial support for Ukraine is very welcome, but the Russian President’s end-of-year address catches the eye as the centrepiece. The fact that Putin no longer portrays the USA as his biggest threat even though the US Commander-in-Chief is now attacking Russia’s most important trading and military ally in Latin America makes me think something dramatic has changed this year. Have Putin and Trump agreed an undeclared deal behind the scenes – Ukraine for Venezuela?
Rupert Wieloch 