From the early days the refusal to sell arms to Kyiv was a controversial position that was criticised by MPs from both sides of the Commons and likened to the policy of appeasement against Nazi Germany in the 1930s. In a debate in February 2015 about assisting Kyiv’s armed struggle, the Conservative former defence secretary Liam Fox was one of a number of politicians to challenge the government’s decision not to sell Kyiv anti-tank weapons.
“The Ukrainians need the ability to defend their homeland against a much more powerful aggressor,” Fox said. He asked the house whether the failure to “give defensive equipment to a country under threat because it might provoke a further reaction from Russia” was “simply a bully’s charter that is already discredited by history?”
By the time of that debate, Fox recalls, it was already “very clear what [Putin’s] pattern of behaviour was and it was very clear that Ukraine would be next”. He added: “There was no logic whatsoever in saying, ‘Well, we can’t give the Ukrainians the ability to defend themselves in case of provoking Putin’ . . . it was a policy that was based on hope, not experience.”