No more hesitation, Europe needs to match the ruthlessness with which the Kremlin has been waging war in Ukraine
Garry Kasparov
Published 10 September 2026
Vladimir Putin has in recent weeks notched a series of wins in his offensive against the West. John Ratcliff, the director of the CIA, travelled to Moscow to speak to Russian officials, but we have little idea of everything that was discussed, or what compromises may have been made with the regime.
Then, Trump’s trusty negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner paid their own visit to Moscow to negotiate with the Russian leader. I believe the trip was the next step in a series of concessions to Putin, thus bolstering his confidence in his ability to manipulate the West.
To make matters worse, the decisive victory of the AfD in local Germany elections only further emboldens the despot, cementing his conviction that he can play a role in orchestrating Western politics.
And yet, Nato’s eastern flank seems to finally be waking up to the threat posed by the regime. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, spoke with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte about the imminent threat to eastern Europe and warned against a repeat of the 1938 Munich appeasement.
The countries of the East, given their immediate proximity to Russia, understand the urgency of the threat in a way that western Europe and America still do not.
I welcome these realisations, but I hope they are not too little too late. It seems that at least parts of Europe are waking up from their long slumber. But they are still in that in-between state between sleep and wakefulness, where you start to take in your external surroundings but don’t quite sharply register them as reality. Slowly dawning recognition is not going to be enough to win the war against Putin.
Every time I write about the conflict, the stakes get higher. Originally, tough diplomacy may have been enough to see off the Russian threat. Later, robustly enforced economic sanctions could have done the job. Later yet, more limited military assistance to Ukraine would have been sufficient. But now, there is no option short of the kind of full-throated war effort that will guarantee Ukrainian victory and, in doing so, lead to the collapse of the Putin regime.
Yes, I said it: nothing but the destruction of the Russian state in its current form will be enough to protect the continued peace and prosperity of the West. As long as Putin’s regime lives on, it will pose an existential threat to democracy worldwide.
The war in Ukraine will not stop if Putin gets the Donbas; it will just change form and move forward to the Baltics, and then the rest of Europe, as its leaders are now starting to recognise.
Some ask why Putin would attack Europe if he knows, realistically, that it won’t end in military success. But that thesis rests on defining success as territorial conquest or some other concrete concession. Putin is a rational actor despite the desire to brush him off as an out-of-touch megalomaniac, but he is operating according to a logic that the West has continued to miscalculate. Still he is treated as a member of the international system.
Putin’s goal with an incursion into Nato would not be a clear victory, but a continued undermining of Western institutions. He is operating as a well-trained KGB agent would: confuse, subvert, fracture the opposition.
When the goals of war are murkier, and the way it is carried out is itself shadowy, as is the case in hybrid war, it becomes even easier to turn a blind eye. But hybrid war is still war, and the extension of Putin’s war into Nato territory is very much an existential threat that must be countered.
And the only way to counter a dictator is through strength: in this case, a policy of deterrence that leaves no question about a) where the red line has been drawn, and b) what will be done if it is crossed.
Stepping up support for Ukraine and engaging in a broader politics of deterrence aimed at the Putin regime, are, of course, two sides of the same coin. A demonstration that the West stands unconditionally with its ally would be a show of strength that any dictator would take seriously.
But in conjunction, Europe must issue a clear warning about what it will do if Putin dares to mount an incursion into a Nato country – and then be ready to enforce it. This warning must come with an already-agreed-upon set of implementation mechanisms that will kick into effect immediately if the trigger comes to pass. No more hesitation or discussion.
So, at this critical juncture, I am calling on Europe to match Putin in the urgency and ruthlessness with which he has been waging war in Ukraine, with an eye toward the imminent threat to eastern Europe.
Europe must:
- Provide complete protection of Ukrainian airspace – the bare minimum for an ally at war.
- Immediately send Ukraine all the weapons it needs; no delay. Why are Greek Patriot systems defending Saudi energy infrastructure when war is at Europe’s doorstep?
- Instead of issuing more rounds of sanctions, enforce the existing packages that are in place, which are more than powerful enough on paper but have been evaded shamelessly by the Russian authorities. Everyone knows who the violators are; now it’s time to go after them with all of the enforcement mechanisms at Europe’s disposal.
- Initiate a complete cessation of diplomatic affairs with Russia, including recalling all ambassadors from Moscow, barring Russia from participation in all international bodies founded on democratic principles; and immediately terminating all official language that so much as acknowledges Russia as a legitimate international actor.
- Seize Russian sovereign funds immediately and use them to power the war effort in Ukraine. Why is Belgium acting as the custodian of Russian money? It is absolutely unconscionable that Putin is taking advantage of European legal protections while openly waging war at its northern border.
Steps one to three are immediate actions that must be taken to defend Ukraine. Steps four and five are the steps that must be coordinated now, and made explicit, to provide a credible threat against future military action.
Most importantly, all of this must be done with the recognition that the West is engaged in all-out war – fighting not just to defend an ally, but for its very own survival, and the survival of democracy worldwide.
Garry Kasparov is a campaigner for democracy in Russia. He is a chess grandmaster who was ranked the world’s No 1 player for a record 255 months
Original article, with photos and videos, here :
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/10/five-hammer-blows-putin-russia/
Comment from :
Hilary Deighton
One really can’t take issue with this sober analysis. Putin has to be faced resolutely and roundly defeated, Russia has to change, the miserable shell to which the past century of communism, brief hope that was murdered, and Putin’s mafioso kleptocracy has reduced it has to be shaken out and a better, probably rather smaller, country rebuilt, with an understanding that the absolute sovereignty of other people’s countries has to be accepted and respected. Peace needs to be fought for, that has always been true and has to be fully understood. The five steps outlined here are sane and sound.
peter griffiths
Garry Kasparov has always known how terrorist russia would respond. We need to support Ukraine with all 5 of his actions now.
#SlavaUkraini from the UK #HeroiamSlava! 🇬🇧🇺🇦
Star comment :
Mike Hunt
Four years ago today, Ukraine liberated Izium.
What was uncovered shocked the world: 447 graves, including 414 civilians and 5 children. Most died violently.
This is what russian occupation leaves behind.
Mass graves.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Saxon Shieldwall
“Then, Trump’s trusty negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner paid their own visit to Moscow to negotiate with the Russian leader”
Negotiate? Take instructions, more like!
It’s a pity too many Brits who think Ukraine is a place far away and can’t think beyond Dover don’t understand Russia, its psyche and history:
“The war in Ukraine will not stop if Putin gets the Donbas; it will just change form and move forward to the Baltics, and then the rest of Europe, as its leaders are now starting to recognise.”
Russia only stops when it is stopped, as in 1945!
Malcolm McIntyre
Reply to Mike Hunt
A good reminder than Russian’s occupation if far far from benign.
Ukrainians must not have to suffer more raping of their land, destruction of their buildings and more killing and torturing . Putin must be stopped.
A. Wanker writes :
Daniel Norwood
I appreciate the author’s bravery in standing up to the increasingly authoritarian and now dictatorial Putin over the years. However we have to be careful about escalating in to an already very dangerous situation which is increasingly demonstrating itself to be un-winnable.
Eastern Ukraine is a core interest for Russia that they will never let it go and we do not have the military industrial capacity and Ukraine does not have the manpower to re-capture. We are simply feeding the meat grinders with young men on both sides. The American neocons who relentlessly pushed for and created this situation have now slipped in to the background and we are left with the financing and the fighting. Peace cannot come faster in Ukraine. With every passing month, at tremendous expense, we are at best only slowing the Russian behemoth in its own underbelly from the inevitable.
Hilary Deighton
Reply to Daniel Norwood
Ukraine is a core interest of Ukraine and no Russian has any rights to any of it whatsoever. It is rather important for Putin and anyone other deluded Russian to grasp the essential and inalienable reality. No part of Ukraine anywhere is his. Ukraine is not Russia. Russia swore to uphold Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders. It is against international law to attempt to change borders by force. Get these facts into your head and everything else falls into place. The U.N. ordered Russia to cease its illegal war of aggression and get out of Ukraine precisely because Russia has no claim on any part of Ukraine at all. Do remember that every oblast of Ukraine, including Crimea and the Donbas, voted very decisively to be Ukrainian, not Russian, as soon as they were given the choice. Go home. Stay home.
A Kremkrapper bastard writes :
David G Smith
This WW3 instigator and warmonger should take himself off to the Ukraine front line instead of encourging death and destruction from a very safe distance.
The Ukraine conflict has nothing whatsover to do with democracy worldwide as it is simply a localised conflict between two non NATO corrupt states that threaten no US or Western European security interests, despite efforts from this ex-chess player to suck European states into a pan European war with Russia which they are in no way ready for as the US will stay well clear.
Here in the UK we have already contributed over £21 bn to prolonging this conflict despite not finding the money to boost our own defence budget to act should a genuine British national interest like the Falklands be attacked
Guy Bewsher
Reply to David G Smith – view message
In 2021 Putin wrote an essay, not totally dissimilar to Mien Kampf in which he talked about his desire to unify the Russ, taking back control of former Russian states and imposing Russian control on the formally occupied eastern European States. Then in early 2022 when the Americans and others were trying to dissuade Vlad from invading Ukraine, his terms were the return of the former Soviet empire – Romania, Moldova, Poland, Finland etc to leave Nato and the EU and take direction from Moscow, regardless of the democratic wishes of their peoples.
To dismiss the war in Ukraine as simply a localised conflict is like dismissing the joint German / Russian invasion of Poland in 1939 as nothing more than a mere spat.
Cynical as it might be, spending £21 bn on helping the Ukrainian’s bleed Russia dry sound like a good investment. Oh, and by the way, the article was about how to stop you Russians in your tracks without starting WW3.
Saxon Shieldwall is saying something that is true for the entire Western world. Not many people know what a ruskie really is and what mafia land really is. If they did, elections would never favor anything even close to far-right or far-left garbage parties who cater to this subhuman filth.
“Europe must:
Provide complete protection of Ukrainian airspace – the bare minimum for an ally at war.
Immediately send Ukraine all the weapons it needs; no delay. Why are Greek Patriot systems defending Saudi energy infrastructure when war is at Europe’s doorstep?”
As always, Garry has it exactly right.
Trouble is : NO ONE FUCKING LISTENS.
DW Phillips :
For the 87th time since taking office, President Trump informed the press that he had a great conversations with Putin, who “is wanting to make a deal,” if only Zelensky will want to make a deal too.
Translation: “I need help with my failed campaign in Iran which today caused oil prices to rise over $101, which is making me look bad. The problem is getting worse because I want Russian oil which is difficult when Kyiv is bombing the oil fields. At the moment I am doing everything in my power to cuddle up to my friend in Moscow and throw Zelensky under the bus, by repeating the same nonsense about “deals” in which Putin has made clear that he wants the submission, occupation and surrender of Ukraine, and for some crazy reason, Ukraine won’t agree.”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.K. :
🇺🇦🇬🇧 This assistance to Ukrainians is extremely important today. The United Kingdom is allocating £100 million to strengthen Ukrainian air defenses before winter. A key part of the package is interceptor missiles for Patriot and other air defense systems, which should arrive in Ukraine by the beginning of winter.
The significance of this step by the British cannot be overestimated. Missiles for Patriot systems, which are in short supply worldwide, are the air defense reinforcement that Ukraine critically needs in light of the Russians’ escalation of ballistic strikes. This is not a solution to the problem, not a panacea, but it is, without a doubt, a significant contribution. It will help protect our infrastructure, but most importantly – the lives of Ukrainians.
The UK is also accelerating deliveries of drones: out of more than 120,000 planned for this year, 25,000 have already been transferred. Deliveries of long-range artillery ammunition funded by the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden continue.
We see that Russia is determined solely to escalate strikes. This can only be countered by joint actions of allies. We thank the government and people of the United Kingdom for this support. For not leaving us alone in the face of a difficult winter. This is what true solidarity and friendship looks like in difficult times.
Ariana Gic :
Russia destroyed hundreds of tons of essential and life-saving medications for patients across Ukraine in a genocide attack on the Apteka Dobroho Dnia pharmaceutical warehouse. Russian intentions to create conditions for a humanitarian crisis leading to the death of many are clear.
Alexandr Dugin, putler’s pet nazi satanist :
“The end of the war in Ukraine can mean only the end of Ukraine. Nothing less.”
Ariana Gic :
The Kremlin’s tool of promoting the genocidal ideology of ruscism openly declares Moscow’s objective for Ukraine – the end of the nation.
Oleksii Fokardi :
“It’s Not Just Ukraine Gaining Unique War Experience” — Nevzorov on Why Russia Must Be Neutralized Now
In a YouTube interview, Russian columnist Alexander Nevzorov stated that he shares the view of those who call for using the current war to resolve the issue with Russia once and for all. His logic is simple: if the Kremlin is not neutralized now, it will emerge from this war not weakened, but armed with monstrous combat experience, and sooner or later it will strike a blow against all of human civilization.
The columnist emphasizes that, throughout its entire history, Russia has never learned to resolve political, diplomatic, or ideological issues in any way other than through murder and occupation, even though humanity has invented several hundred other methods. The Russian national idea, he says, boils down to parasitism, plunder, and living off its neighbors, and the country lags behind the rest of humanity by 700 years—and this is no joke, but a tragic lag. Western intelligence agencies are already saying the same thing in their own terms: according to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. intelligence revised its previous assessments this summer and now does not rule out a Russian attack on one of the NATO countries even before the war against Ukraine ends—in the window from the fall of 2026 to 2029, primarily in the Baltic states and Poland, ranging from sabotage and unmarked armed groups to a limited invasion.
At the same time, Nevzorov emphasizes that he is speaking not as a liberal, pacifist, or democrat, but as a researcher who is interested in the specifics of this process. Hence, his conclusion is extremely practical: we must not stand by and watch the Russians tear each other apart, but rather ensure that they leave Ukraine and fall apart—because they are finished for the next five or six generations, and Russia, in his words, simply does not know how to survive otherwise.
“No more hesitation, Europe needs to match the ruthlessness with which the Kremlin has been waging war in Ukraine.”
Indeed, Europe must act far more aggressively toward the mafia-terrorist federation. However, that might happen in the next century.