Three years ago on Monday, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brutally ended the long post-Cold War period of relative international peace and complacency. Vladimir Putin’s attempt to redraw the map of Europe by military force galvanised the West to help defend Ukrainian sovereignty. Backed by US, European and Australian military aid, the Ukrainian people have heroically fought the world’s second-most powerful military machine to a virtual stalemate.

The Western alliance maintained that Ukraine must win and Putin must lose because the conflict in Ukraine demonstrated the global threat that authoritarian countries, such as Russia, China, and Iran, posed to the freedom and security of democratic nations and the ideal of a liberal and rules-based international order. Donald Trump’s return to the White House has now upended that view and shattered the facade of Western unity.