Even by Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s standards, the Ukrainian president’s high-speed trip around Europe’s principal capitals was successful. A trip to Berlin extracted a commitment to supply €2.7bn more arms, Paris offered more troop training and light tanks, and London stumped up pilot training and long-range drones.
The ongoing supply of western weapons is what gives Kyiv its best hope of kicking out the Russian invaders, a point underlined by Moscow’s overnight bombing of Kyiv. Eighteen out of 18 missiles apparently aimed at US-made Patriot air defence systems were knocked out and casualties appear to be minimal.