Trump may be right, it's time to stop the war in Ukraine

Britain's foreign secretary and the US secretary of state are doing the rounds together, in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe, making up their minds and other people's minds about giving permission to Ukraine to use US/UK-supplied long-range weapons to attack targets in Russia. If authority is given which seems inevitable, Britain's Storm Shadow cruise missile and the US ATACMS missiles will be fired at Russian air bases and other targets to reduce or eliminate Moscow's launch points for strikes on Ukrainian cities. Militarily it makes sense to hit the enemy where it hurts. But Joe Biden has, until now, been reluctant for Ukraine to forge ahead with this strategy using US missiles. For obvious reasons. It will antagonise Putin and give him justification for accusing the US of directly attacking Russia. Likewise if Britain says yes to Storm Shadows hitting Russian targets inside Russia, rather than inside Ukraine. It would be a serious escalation but with Putin destroying Ukraine's infrastructure with missiles fired from inside Russia, the argument for striking back is sound and fully justified. Except that global politics are involved and if authority is given to Kyiv to do what they will with US- and UK-supplied long-range weapons, the war is going to get doubly dangerous and could lead to escalations we can only whisper about. So, before we get to this stage, surely it is time for some serious talks to be held about how this war can be brought to an end. Neither Ukraine nor Russia is going to win. Accept that as a basis for negotiations and start getting the two sides round a table. Trump is right. The war is just killing more and more people and destroying more and more property and there is no end in sight. Announce the decision that Kyiv can start hitting Russia with western weapons and then make a move to bring this terrible war to a halt. The facile question asked of Trump by the ABC interviewer during the TV debate with Kamaala Harris -"Do you want Ukraine to win the war?" - is meaningless. There will be no winner. Both Russia and Ukraine have lost. It's time to talk.