Putin is a liar and a murderer. It is impossible to accommodate him

 The pictures of presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky sitting face-to-face in St Peter’s basilica at the funeral of Pope Francis were poignant, even iconic. Here in the beating heart of the Vatican there are constant, and correct, reminders of the need for peace and reconciliation in a violent and conflicted world.

But St Peter’s is also built on a heritage of victimhood and martyrdom, the sacrifice of the righteous against brutality and oppression. The language used by President Trump, after the meeting, that Vladimir Putin may be “tapping me along” is not unprecedented.

There is a pattern of behaviour here where the hopes and aspirations of the free world come face-to-face with the violent, amoral behaviour of brutal tyranny. President George W Bush said that he looked into Putin’s eyes and “saw a soul”. Unfortunately Putin looked into his and saw a KGB file number. Once KGB always KGB.

Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Georgia in 2008, President Barack Obama decided on his “reset” policy to try to do business with Russia. Putin gratefully pocketed the offer and in 2014 occupied Crimea, part of Ukraine sovereign territory. When he saw the pusillanimous response from the West, he decided that he would also have further parts of Ukraine when he savagely invaded the country in February 2022 resulting in the death of over 13,000 Ukrainian civilians alongside 70,000 troops with 120,000 injured (this is not to mention the estimated 120,000 Russians who have died for no purpose other than Putin’s vanity).

Now, the grim reality is dawning on the ever optimistic President Trump. He is the latest in a line of Western leaders to believe that he can do business with Putin. David Cameron once believed it, so did Emmanuel Macron – but they both ended up accepting the harsh reality. No amount of hope for the future can disguise the fact that Putin is a liar, murderer and an international criminal.

The Ukrainians understand this more than most. In one of the most blatant acts of betrayal of recent history, Ukraine agreed to sign away the nuclear weapons it had inherited as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union in return for assurances about their security. On December 5 1994, Ukraine signed up to the Budapest Memorandum, joining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) along with Russia, the US and the UK, the existing nuclear powers, and supplemented by separate agreements with France and China.

The Treaty gave Ukraine assurances that its independence and sovereignty, according to its existing borders, would be respected by the other signatories. They would, under the terms of the agreement, refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. They also undertook to refrain from economic coercion of Ukraine to secure advantage of any kind (particularly in their own interests). They went even further in agreeing to seek immediate UN Security Council action to help Ukraine if they “should become a victim of an act of aggression”. Of course, the agreements, were drawn up to resemble a Nato-like guarantee but they were carefully drafted to end up being nothing of the sort.

Little wonder that President Zelensky now seeks much firmer security guarantees as a part of any peace agreement, especially from his Western allies, recognising as he does that Putin’s every assurance on security is a profanity and any signature an ultimately dispensable item to be discarded when Putin feels that his moment for future expansion is right.

In the free world we are hardwired to seek to preserve our freedom with concepts of a rule of law (including international law) and universal human rights.

We must accept those who reject these principles have a very different world-view. Putin is Criminal-in-Chief of what can only be described as a thugocracy. Political opponents at home are murdered or disappear, dissidents abroad are hunted down and even foreign subjects are poisoned by the FSB, including here in the UK.

Many Western leaders have learnt the hard way that there can be no long-term accommodation with Putin as he will simply ditch any promise, relinquish any agreement and abandon any of his faux-friendships when it suits his purpose. There is no shame whatsoever in seeking peace and reconciliation but when it comes to Vladimir Putin decent people, sooner or later, end up in the same place.