France, UK and US reiterate support for Ukrainian defence for as long as it takes

The foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom and the United States reiterated their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and discussed their determination to continue supporting Kyiv's efforts to defend its territory for as long as it takes.

Their vow followed telephone contacts between their respective heads of defence and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu over the past few days, including for a second time on Sunday with Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense.

Details of the calls were not forthcoming, but the three allied defence chiefs did announce that they pushed back on Shoigu's claim that Ukraine would attempt to escalate the conflict by use of a so-called 'dirty bomb'.

For his part, French President, Emmanuel Macron, said the prospect of peace between Russian and Ukraine did exist but that Kyiv would decide the time and the terms.

"Let’s not let peace be captured by the Russian power. Peace is possible, but only the one decided by the Ukrainians and when they decide it," Macron said, according to Bloomberg.

Macron added that the war was the result of Russian nationalism, together with the resentment and humiliation during the decades following the collapse of the Soviet empire, but stressed that nothing could justify the invasion of Ukraine.

As an aside, in an opinion piece in Bloomberg, historian Niall Ferguson said he suspected that the White House would change tack after the mid-term elections in the US, having until now "made almost no effort to broker a cease-fire, much less peace".