Can Ukraine survive the coming of Donald Trump?

On the eastern marches of Europe, after nearly three years of slugging it out with its larger, more powerful neighbour for control of a string of unlovely mining towns, Ukraine is approaching exhaustion. Kyiv, which has led a fierce and unexpectedly successful defence of its realm, is contending with a waning supply of weapons, ammunition and money. Worse still, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s war effort is beginning to run out of fighting men.

All men aged 25 and over – with the exception of those deemed critical to the war effort, or who have fled, gone into hiding or bribed their way out of the draft – have been dispatched east to hold the line. Those who volunteered during the first days of the war and are still able-bodied are manning positions years after they believed they would be rotated out. These are now some of the most battle-hardened soldiers in the world and Ukraine cannot afford to let them go home.