Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
The government has embarrassed itself with a call to ‘make noise for Ukraine’ this Saturday. In an Orwellian attempt to manufacture enthusiasm for continued war, the Ministry of Defence advises:
‘You can make noise any way you like; clap or cheer, play an instrument, sing a song, stomp your feet or ring a bell. You could also shout ‘Slava Ukrani’ – Glory to Ukraine!’
Government instructions even include a social media toolkit to help drum up support for Ukraine. It is bizarre that anyone in Westminster or Whitehall thinks that producing this kind of propaganda is a good use of time or money at a time when we are being told that the finances are too tight for essentials.
It’s also rather ironic that the government is backing this call at a time when they have been broadly supportive of Lord Walney’s campaign to restrict disruptive and ‘noisy protests’.
There is however little danger that anyone’s day is going to be massively disturbed by war-like sing-songs or bell ringing.
Whatever our gung-ho new government would like to think, there is no popular enthusiasm for escalating the war in Ukraine. According to a recent poll for Unherd only 7% of the population think Britain should get more involved in foreign wars. While there is sympathy with the Ukrainians, only tiny numbers believe British troops should be in play.
This is hardly a surprise. It is becoming clearer and clearer that, as the anti-war movement has said from the start, there can be no winners in this war. Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has been cheered to the rafters by the Western backers of war, even though it has taken us frighteningly close to a nuclear conflict. British tanks played an important part in this operation and, according to the Times newspaper, the British government has been a champion of this escapade, which even the US government was sceptical about.
The Kursk attack has embarrassed Putin, delivered a morale boost to the Ukrainian military and has no doubt put a spring in the step of more swivel-eyed warmongers in Whitehall and Washington. Just as significantly for Zelensky, it appears to have scotched what would have been the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since the first weeks of the war back in 2022. It seems any risk is worth taking to avert peace.
But the incursion is more of a perilous publicity stunt than an effective military move.
As the Financial Times reports, the Ukrainians’ initiative has not forced the Russians to divert troops from the crucial Donetsk front where Russia continues its remorseless advance. In fact, it has weakened the Ukrainians’ military position where it matters:
‘One Ukrainian artillery brigade commander in eastern Ukraine told the Financial Times that part of the reason for the Russian advance was Kyiv was moving its scarce resources north’.
The Ukrainian army, already at breaking point in places, now faces even longer spells on the frontline. Some soldiers in Donetsk have only had two months of rest in more than two years of frontline fighting. Shortages of shells and other material are becoming critical.
Even the mainstream media in the West is having to comment on a growing war-weariness in Ukraine.
The British government appears to be more and more of an outlier in its enthusiasm for the war. The Times reports that Starmer has been pushing hard to persuade the US and France to follow Britain in greenlighting the use of Western weapons on Russian soil.
In much of the rest of the world pressure for a peace deal is growing. On his visit to Kiev, Indian Prime Minister Modi has just urged Zelensky to get serious about negotiations. Given Trump’s public opposition to the war and US public opinion, all the pressure in the run up to elections is likely to be for a rollback of the war effort.
It is sad and shameful that a Labour government is asking people to drum up support for a doomed and dreadful war. If you want to make some noise this weekend, make it for peace.