I never write about wars. Mostly because there are so few these days, but also because they do not interest me, and I don’t have much understanding of how they work.

But for an everyday person like me, it is becoming abundantly clear that the west wants the Ukraine war to take a long time. Last week the US sent missiles that could travel twice as far as the previous ones. This week:

The PM has now ordered the defence secretary to examine ways that the UK can provide Ukraine with fighter jets.

The RAF has a limited number of aircraft it could theoretically provide Ukraine – including about 20 older Typhoon jets.

This at a time when Russia is starting to win again. Not when Russia was retreating and such gifts could have ended things. Not at the beginning of the war. It is as if they give Ukraine only enough to keep the war going, and never enough to win.

And it makes sense. A war that takes 2-3 years will keep weakening Russia in all sorts of ways – militarily and economically of course. They will be less of a threat for a decade or more, as long as they don’t get to take over all of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, despite protests of how they cannot afford it, the West loves giving their weapons industry business.

Unless Putin does something crazy, or gets toppled, or gives up, the result seems to be incredibly obvious – in a year or two Russia will have some of east Ukraine, and the war will be over. But to get there 100K+ more people need to die. Truly sickening that men playing games can do so much harm.