The Russian bear poses a dark threat to the future of Ukraine

By any measure of journalistic practice, I should be writing this column about Russia’s threat to its neighbour, Ukraine, and what it might mean to the rest of the world, this country included.

However, events are moving at such speed, anything I write could be rendered irrelevant, or indeed nonsensical, by the time of publication.

One thing I can say is that I am not surprised by President Putin’s belligerence. I spent the years 1974 to 1976 reporting from Moscow when communism still ruled. Ukraine was then part of the USSR, but it was a union rooted in Soviet power and resisted by many Ukrainians. I recall talking to a Ukrainian dissident leader who nurtured what he called a “visceral hatred” for the Soviet regime. He was not the only one.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, some 90 per cent of Ukrainians voted for independence in a national referendum. There was nothing a disorganised and hapless Russia could do about this, but old Moscow hands have repeatedly warned that the big bear would eventually reach out his hairy paws to claw back what he believes is rightfully his.

That is what appears to be happening now and all I can say is, God help you, Ukraine.

Back in UK, our problems are not in the same category, but the picture is not exactly bright. We have endured three storms in a week in which three people were killed by falling trees, 1.4 million homes left without power, roads and fields flooded by rising rivers and many families evacuated.

There was even an earthquake in the Midlands. It registered a magnitude of only 2.8 and caused no damage, but it was felt over a radius of 12 miles and left locals wondering whatever would happen next.

One bright spot amid the gloom was the government’s decision to end all Covid restrictions and stop free mass testing in England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the pandemic as “two of the darkest years in our peacetime history.”

He said he was not declaring victory over Covid “because this virus is not going away.” However, he said the nation had passed the peak, with infections and hospital admissions falling. We could now, he said, begin to complete “the transition back to normality.”

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There is a lot of cynicism in the vastly rich world of professional football, so it was heart-warming to read the letter which Joe, aged six and a half, sent to his local club, Swindon Town.

The note read in full: “Mummy doesn’t have any money to come to Swindon games because she has no money for food and has to pay for my dinner at school. I like Swindon Town Harry McKirdy. I will come one day. Joe aged 6 ½.”

Attached to the letter were three coins, one of 20 pence, one five pence and a penny, and the words, “for Harry.”

Swindon Town FC is in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, and Harry McKirdy is the club’s top goal scorer.

Now the club is trying to track down the young fan who sent 26 pence to its top player. In a post on Twitter, a spokesman asked if anyone knows his identity. “We would really like to get in touch with Joe, but we don’t have an address.”

Chairman Dale Vince wrote on social media that they would pay for Joe to be a mascot for the club. “Stories like this must unite fans,” Vince said.

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When a serious storm last November knocked out electric supplies to customers of Northern Powergrid, the company was quick to apologise and pledge compensation. But even the most optimistic householders did not expect restitution on the scale some were promised.

One amazed recipient shared a photo of his cheque on Twitter. It was made out in the sum of £2,324,252,080,110. Several others were promised compensation also in the trillions of pounds.

Too good to be true? You bet! It was a “clerical error,” Powergrid said, and promised the correct payments would be made soon.