After a week in which Xi Jinping bestrode global politics by hosting the two most powerful leaders in the world, China’s president looks like a Colossus. Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, has revealed himself as a minnow among men.His capitulation to small-time, short-term, local British politics by quietly easing restrictions on the importation of refined Russian fuel to the UK, shows he has no capacity for strategic thought, nor leadership, and has run up a white flag in an act of battlefield cowardice he doesn’t even comprehend.After hosting Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Xi continued his effort to show China as a force of stability in a world where international law is ignored by both Russia and the US, by calling for respect of global legal practices.Starmer’s small-time decision to allow Russian diesel and jet fuel into the UK, so that Britons can enjoy cheap flights over the summer, is a blow to Ukrainians fighting to protect their democracy. It is also a violation of his agreements with allies to choke off the Kremlin’s money pipe and a violation of the UK’s written commitments.It is a boon to the Russian war effort and will mean that the Kremlin has more money to kill Britain's allies in Ukraine.Ukrainian soldiers hold their position at the front line near the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka, Donetsk region, in December 2023 (AFP/Getty)Men and women that I have known since before the 2022 full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, who held back Putin’s invading convoys as they converged through Sumy province, and roared down the highways from Belarus, now stand a slightly bigger chance of being killed because of the British prime minister.Small teams of Ukrainian volunteers turned those invaders back in March 2022 with British NLAW anti-tank rockets. Many of them formed their own units in the finest traditions of partisans through history and, with the swashbuckling flair of the early SAS, humiliated Putin, stole his tanks with tractors, enlisted their wives as intelligence agents behind enemy lines, and shattered his plans for conquest.More than half of those teams are now dead. Those that survive are now experts in drone warfare - a way of killing developed because the US cut military aid and Europe dithered over whether or not it really wanted a Ukrainian win. They have been buoyed throughout the last four years of war by the thought, the knowledge, that Britannia had their backs. But Starmer’s back-sliding on sanctions against Russia, already revealed by the British reluctance to stop the Kremlin’s shadow fleet ship oil to fund its war is a physical gut punch and a psychological win for Putin - delivered by Britain’s prime minister.It will not be forgotten by men like “Sneaky”, a Ukrainian marine major who led international volunteers in the liberation of Kherson, or “Grumpy” who knocked out 14 Russian armoured vehicles using a stolen Russian tank in Sumy province, fought in the final days of the Battle for Bakhmut and had his thigh shattered on a reconnaissance mission by a Russian who got a burst of bullets off before Grumpy killed him at close range.Ukrainian servicemen near the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 18, 2026 (Reuters)In Zaporizhzhia province, where Russian troops have been pressing on the local capital for months, drone units like Team Grey drew moral support from places like London. Avi, an engineer and now drone pilot, had been on the front line non-stop for three years.In Kyiv, the history of British defiance - the "Spirit of the Blitz” - has inspired the population of Ukraine to maintain a stiff upper lip amid nightly drone and missile attacks that enables the city’s world class clubs and restaurants live on with defiant joy.No such resolve has emerged from Number 10 Downing Street. Starmer’s decision is bad news for Ukraine. It is also a staggering failure to fulfil his mission to protect the UK itself.It means that Russia will have more money to continue to prosecute its hybrid war against the UK, and other western allies, which includes surveillance of our global communications links, undermining our democracies, political assassinations, physical sabotage and long term, planning to cripple our critical national infrastructure.Boris Johnson harnessed his charm and charisma to deliver the strategic and economic disaster that was the UK’s departure from the European Union.Boris Johnson with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office of Ukrainian/PA) (PA Media)But in Ukraine Johnson is as close to a national hero that a foreigner can be - because he stood up and stepped in to help when Kyiv’s need was most dire.His rhetorical skills were given full throat when he visited the Ukrainian capital where his performances of Churchill-lite managed to dodge ridicule and inspired front line fighters with the idea that they were in the vanguard of Europe’s defence.Starmer followed up and capitalized on this low cost high reward policy by signing a 100-year accord with Ukraine last year. Kyiv will not ever fall to Russia and whatever the outcome of the war, what is left of Ukraine will emerge as a military and industrial powerhouse. Britain’s past role is still acknowledged and that may help future relations with Kyiv.But a country that has had six prime ministers in 10 years needs to protect its international reputation. “British support arrived in our hardest moments: military support, humanitarian help and sanctions pressure. It arrived when others were still hesitating,” said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, deputy governor of the front line province of Kherson.Keir Starmer welcomes Volodymyr Zelensky upon his arrival at 10 Downing Street, in central London, on March 17, 2026 (AFP/Getty)“Our concern is not about British leadership. It is about a specific mechanism which may weaken an instrument that Britain itself built carefully over many years.“And this issue matters not only for Ukraine. Russia is not only a threat to us. It is a challenge to the security system of the whole free world,” he added.The allies defeated Hitler in WW2 when Britain was led by Churchill, who told his country in 1940: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”.It is now led by a runt of a man who is no longer prepared to make the case for defending the democracy so many died protecting then, and for which so many are dying today.