Russian assets can fund Ukraine’s recovery
War will be ended by the pocket rather than the gun but the ghost of Versailles lingers over reparations
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Narrated by Roger Boyes
This weekend is surely the moment to reflect on how wars end. Two minutes of silence at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month is not going to do it, though, not for Ukraine, nor for Gaza.
Both conflicts demand months of brain-stretching diplomatic expertise and more western resolve before soldiers start to lay down their arms. The grinding combat in Ukraine is the most pertinent for Remembrance Day and not just because the fighting will soon return to the trenches for a second winter.
The phantom of the First World War-ending treaties stalks any future Ukraine settlement. Try inflicting punitive reparations on Russia, say nervous analysts, and you risk a rerun of the Versailles accords: a humiliated, exhausted and economically crippled society
