But why the delay? What the hell has got into us? If the war in Ukraine ends in disaster then it will be for one reason only — because of the dithering, doddering drift of the West.

Every month that we wait is a month in which more Ukrainian children are bombed and killed.

Every week in which we fail to do the obvious — and give the Ukrainians the weapons they need — is a week in which Putin gets closer to his disgusting ambition, to torture a European country to death.

Every day the pressure on the Ukrainians is growing — and yet the solution is within our grasp.

Boris Johnson on a visit to Kyiv in January last year. ‘We have it in our power to give the Ukrainians what they need,’ the former prime minister writes

We know what to do. We have done it before and we can easily do it again.

When Ronald Reagan won the Cold War — with the staunch support of Margaret Thatcher — he succeeded because of the urgency and determination with which he confronted the problem.

He could see, with total moral clarity, that the U.S. was engaged in a titanic struggle: between freedom and tyranny.

So he came up with a solution that was made possible by the very economic freedom in which he believed. After years of Communist oppression in the Soviet Union, the United States had become so incomparably richer that he was able massively to outspend Moscow.

He used the sheer throw-weight of American military spending to intimidate the Russians, force them to the negotiating table, and to begin a process that led to the break-up of the Soviet empire.

For dozens of benighted populations, across eastern Europe and around the old Soviet Union, it was the dawn of freedom.

When the Berlin Wall came down, it was the most joyous political moment of my lifetime. For hundreds of millions of people, it meant the end of the police state and the midnight knock on the door. It was an end to the terror of the Securitate and the Stasi, of children being paid to grass up their parents, and of people being sent to jail — in their thousands — simply because they had the courage to dissent from the Communist regime.

It was a moment of total moral, economic and political triumph for Western ideas of freedom; and yet all those gains are now at risk. The world in 2024 is on a knife-edge, with a real risk that Western democracies are about to be humiliated, and autocracies emboldened around the world — because of our lassitude, our pathetic refusal to do what is necessary.

Think back to what would have happened if — as so many experts predicted — Putin had succeeded in his blitzkrieg of February 2022. Think what would have happened if he had conquered the whole of Ukraine, including Kyiv.

Boris, pictured with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in April 2022, writes that ‘defeat for Ukraine would usher in a new era of fear in the whole Euro-Atlantic area’

It would of have meant the end of Ukrainian democracy and the creation of a vassal state; and in order to ensure the obedience of the newly subjugated population Putin would have followed the hideous playbook he has used in those parts of Ukraine he has already captured: forced Russification, systematic murder of any who resist and the taking of Ukrainian children to Russia for brainwashing.

Note how Putin runs his own country — shooting journalists, flagrantly murdering political opponents such as Alexei Navalny.

That was so nearly the fate of the whole of Ukraine and the only reason it did not happen was that the Ukrainians disproved Putin’s own thesis, and fought like lions for the country they love. The reason they succeeded so spectacularly was that they had already been given crucial Western support, including anti-tank missiles from the U.S. and UK. Look what the Ukrainians have achieved, against the odds, with the weaponry we have so far given them.

They have driven Putin out of more than 50 per cent of the territory he has occupied; they have incapacitated more than 40 per cent of the Black Sea Fleet; they have inflicted appalling casualties on Putin’s armed forces — more than 300,000 dead or injured.

And yet we must also acknowledge that the cost to Ukraine has also been grave, and that cost is now mounting — completely unnecessarily — because we are failing to give them what they need.

The shortage of shells on the Ukrainian front line is now so bad that sometimes they have to wait under Russian bombardment, unable to fire back.

The shortage of air defences is now so acute that Kharkiv — the second city of Ukraine — is in danger of being turned into another Mariupol. Ukrainian power stations are being pulverised. The Ukrainians used to be able to intercept 90 per cent of incoming missiles.

Now we are starving them, for reasons I do not understand, of the protective shields they need. There are about 100 Patriot systems dotted around Europe, doing nothing. Why? If this goes on — the constant Russian bombardment, the under-supply of the Ukrainians — then there is a real risk that Putin will be able to mount some kind of break-out this summer and drive his armour, once again, to Kyiv.

What will that mean, after all we have told the Ukrainians — that we will ‘have their backs for as long as it takes?’

Let us be clear, that if Ukraine falls, it will be not only a disaster for that innocent country.

It will be a total humiliation for the West — the first time in the 75 years of Nato’s existence that this hitherto successful alliance has been utterly routed — and on European soil.

A defeat for Ukraine would usher in a new era of fear in the whole Euro-Atlantic area, as Putin continues his drive to rebuild the Soviet empire: from the Baltics to Georgia to Moldova to Central Asia to the Arctic.

It will be a terrifying moment for the people of Taiwan and the clearest possible signal to China that the West has lost the willpower to protect democracy.

It will be a turning point in history, the moment when the West finally loses its post-war hegemony, the moment when borders everywhere are suddenly up for grabs and aggression is seen to pay — and all because of a failure to stand up for Ukraine.

What is so infuriating about this slowly unfurling catastrophe is that we can so easily avert it. We have it in our power to give the Ukrainians what they need: not just the $60billion package of assistance that I hope and believe the U.S. Congress will shortly approve.

The Germans could and should give the Taurus missiles, and we could all give and do much, much more. We could easily give Ukraine the long range artillery to take out the communications between Russia and Crimea and cause Putin serious strategic problems.

Why aren’t we doing it? This time the advantage of the West is even bigger than it was in the Cold War. The Nato economies are about 30 times the size of Russia.

If we get a grip now and start seriously manufacturing the munitions the Ukrainians need, then we can not only fix the problem of Ukraine — we can drive jobs and growth in our own countries.

It is time for the West, including Britain, to snap out of our sleep-walk; to recover the spirit of Reagan and Thatcher and invest in the defence of our freedoms.

The simplest and most cost-effective way to defend freedom is to invest now in the defence of Ukraine.