You will, by now, have read dozens of takes on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Outside of the gross delight that is clearly coming from some quarters — finally, a real clash of civilizations! Finally, we can prove our mettle, and prove how committed we are to NATO! — some true and accurate things have been said.

David Broder, for instance, is absolutely right to say that attempts to pin any of this on the Left are grotesque, as if it was our parties that were funded with Russian money, as if it weren’t Jeremy Corbyn who demanded Britain properly implement a Magnitsky Act against Russian capital — only to be ridiculed by the Tory government; as if those who supported the Iraq War have any right to be horrified by an invasion so clearly modelled on it, from the ludicrous, manufactured pretexts to the macho cynicism of the leaders behind it.

But it is important in all of this to understand what is happening in Ukraine, and what this is horrendous invasion is likely to mean for the people who are going to be its victims — Ukrainians.