Whereas the president has raised the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine, such an intervention is fiercely opposed by the Nationalists.
Across Europe, Right-wing nationalist populists — most of whom lean towards Russia — are expected to make large gains in the elections, which come to a close on Sunday, June 9. That seismic shift, motivated in part by concerns about immigration, will also form part of the background to the G7 summit.
For Zelensky, this spasm of border anxiety is yet another headache. In 2022 alone, eight million people fled Ukraine. When 154,000 Ukrainians arrived in the UK two years ago, it was the largest single influx of refugees in our history – and they were warmly welcomed. Other countries took far more: Poland has accepted 2.5 million.
Now Ukraine, whose population has fallen from 45 million in 2014 to under 30 million today, would dearly like them to return.
The demographic panic that grips the rest of Europe — too many people — is reversed in an increasingly depopulated Ukraine. In the West, Putin’s mass abduction of tens of thousands of children from occupied regions — one of his gravest crimes against humanity — has hardly registered.
To Ukrainians, it is bizarre that their war has vanished from our front pages.
The worst atrocity in Europe since 1945 has been eclipsed by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Not Putin but Netanyahu is now cast in the role of public enemy number one. There are no mass protests against Russia in Western capitals or on campuses. Instead an eerie silence reigns.
Britain is one of the few countries where public support for Ukraine seems solid. Sir Keir Starmer has promised to continue the firm pro-Kyiv policy laid down by Boris Johnson and maintained under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
But Nigel Farage is challenging the status quo on this issue too. The Reform leader apparently agrees with his friend Donald Trump that a deal should be done to end the war immediately, no matter the cost to Ukrainians.
As for Trump himself, he has had little to say on Ukraine recently, having been preoccupied by the small matter of his conviction for 34 felonies in a New York court.
However, there is no sign that the former president has changed his mind since boasting last year that if he were elected he could end the war “in 24 hours”, thanks to his relationship with his “friend” Putin.
Trump’s aides have outlined a possible deal that would leave the Russians in control of occupied and annexed areas of Ukraine, including Crimea and much of the Donbas. Ukraine would lose the chance to join Nato or the EU and effectively be reduced to the status of a Russian satellite like Belarus.
More immediately, a second Trump presidency would almost certainly result in the US Congress severing Ukraine’s military and financial lifeline. Speaker Mike Johnson is a loyal Trump supporter and the MAGA Republicans used their bargaining power in the House of Representatives to delay the last aid package for over six months.