Russia's war on Ukraine: As Vladimir Putin redoubles his efforts to take Ukraine, we must not give in to war fatigue – Steve Cardownie

As we approach the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, warnings have been sounded that a new offensive by Moscow’s forces is now underway.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg raised the alarm, saying that more Russian troops had been despatched to war-torn areas as the Kremlin looks to tighten its grip. He warned that “we see no sign whatsoever that President Putin is preparing for peace… What we see is President Putin and Russia still wanting to control Ukraine.”

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said last week that his country had intercepted a Russian plan “for the destruction of Moldova” which was later confirmed by Moldova’s intelligence services, with its President, Maia Sandu, declaring that “the Kremlin’s attempts to bring violence to Moldova will not work”.

Norway’s intelligence agencies have also declared that the main security threat to Europe is coming from Russia. Norway’s government is concerned that the country’s oil-and-gas installations could be targeted by Russian saboteurs and that “all of Europe would suffer” if they were hit.

It would seem then that Putin is redoubling his efforts to fulfil his illegal ambitions and that there is no sign that he is interested in withdrawing his troops from Ukrainian territory. So it is important that we do not allow ourselves to suffer from war fatigue. Of course, other events will periodically dominate the headlines but we must not lose sight of the tremendous effort the Ukrainian forces are making to repulse the invaders.

We can demonstrate our continued support for Ukraine and the 22,000 Ukrainians now living here by getting involved in the “Ukraine Forever” programme for Edinburgh announced in yesterday’s paper.