Dispatches

Ukraine Dispatches

The War in Ukraine

6 October 2026

I

Watching the International news channels earlier this evening, Tuesday, 6 October 2026, and obtaining an overview of very important International affairs, there is a sense of disconnect on the International scene.

The last minute decision by Marco Rubio, the American Secretary of State, not to attend the very important meeting with International leaders and Heads of State in Munich, and particularly the intended meeting with heads of state including President Zelenskyy, Chancellor Merz and President Macron in order to discuss the War in Ukraine, has been seismic.

II

One obtains a very different overview when watching the same event through the perspectives of the news outlets of different nations.

As I watched, I became increasingly irritated with the arrogance and impetuosity of the American NATO representative. Challenged with the suggestion that the European Union was actually letting the USA loose, as in the USA in a rowing boat being towed, and the tow line being severed deliberately…

The American NATO representative ridiculed the suggestion and said that he was dealing with ‘think tanks’ every day.

He could not have anticipated the presenter’s very next remark…

It is the German Chancellor who said that. The German Chancellor is not a think tank.

I sat silent, immovable, yet inwardly I imagined punching the air with glee.

The German Chancellor made the position abundantly clear.

And what gave Chancellor Mertz even greater authority was the fact that he had courage to admit that it was his Country that had got things terribly wrong in the 20th Century and that America was now on that same trajectory.

The message was clear and unmitigated. America is out of control. It needs to be checked. This can only be done in the forthcoming Midterms by the American Electorate.

III

Meanwhile, Trump is fielding questions back at home. Speaking on the spur of the moment to journalists gathered on a tarmac apron… the International public know that in five minutes time the president will have completely forgotten what he has said, what he has promised to do, and suddenly decided what he is now going to do which is the exact opposite to that expressed five minutes earlier.

Chancellor Mertz stated clearly and diplomatically that the absence of the American Secretary of State confirmed to every head of state present, to NATO and to the European Union, confirmed that the old 80 year rules-based-order was now a thing of the past.

IV

Momentous events are occurring.

The Lithuanian Parliament has voted to no longer oppose the possibility of hosting nuclear armaments on their soil.

Estonia has very deliberately moved its armed forces to within 12 km of the border with Russia in order that if Russia was so foolish to invade Estonia, Estonia would immediately be able to counter invade.

The German Bundestag (Parliament) has moved the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) to Lithuania and Poland as extra security for these two nations, also thereby reinforcing NATO's eastern flank in the event of Russian aggression.

V

UK Military Deployments in the Baltic Region

Estonia (Primary Base):

The UK leads the NATO Forward Land Forces / enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battlegroup based at the Tapa military base.
Around 800 to 1,000 personnel (such as units from the Infantry and Royal Tank Regiment) rotate on continuous tours alongside French and Estonian forces.

Latvia and Lithuania (JEF / Regional Presence):

While the UK does not base a permanent combat battlegroup in Latvia or Lithuania, they maintain a rotational and liaison presence.
Personnel from the Standing Joint Force Headquarters have deployed elements to Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to coordinate regional activities for the multinational Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).
The Royal Air Force (RAF) also periodically conducts NATO air-policing missions across the broader Baltic airspace

VI

President Macron of France spoke with authority and eloquence, and clearly had the ear of the President of the European Union Commission - President Ursula von der Leyen - that even though the European Union was founded upon the principles of economic prosperity and union, the world position had so changed, that for the first time the European Union needed to think geopolitically.

President Macron explained that this came about through the absence of a nation that could once be relied upon. It was clear where the consensus lay.

There was a sense of that action of “cutting loose someone who had once been a friend but had now not only become a hindrance but actually a danger”.

It reminds me of that moment on water when one is towing a dinghy that has broken loose and is causing the yacht to become unstable. It is not possible to pull the dinghy out of the water because of the speed and wind, the height of the waves. That being so, it is essential that the dinghy be cut loose and left to drift away. And the moment this happens, the crew feels stability once again returning to the yacht.

The European Union is now a geopolitical power and indeed a great power. It is not a middle power. America is no longer a superpower but it is a great power. Russia is a great power but not a superpower. China is a great power but not a superpower. Canada is a powerful middle power by its own definition. Both France and the United Kingdom are nuclear powers. And hopefully when the United Kingdom is once again in association with the European Union, this will stabilise Europe.

President Macron has emphasised that the European Union has had to rearm and to defend itself, it is ongoing, and it is also clear that that both Russia and America under his 47th presidency our adversarial.

Again, following International news, I have learned things about America tonight that make me realise that what they have done to their own armed forces in this illegal war in Iran can never be forgiven.

What Trump said tonight to the gathered journalists somewhere in America, that President Zelenskyy had better move himself, and move himself quickly in order to strike a deal…

Well I would respectfully suggest to any American reader of this dispatch that now that that very British expression “the horse has already bolted“ will be fully understood.

In a conversation two months ago, I mentioned that it might take ten years for America to recover from the present predicament in which it finds itself because of the 45th and 47th presidencies. I recall being immediately and sagely corrected. I was politely reminded that it might be more like a generation.

“Munich 2026 tells me in no uncertain terms that it will take America at least half a century to recover, to repair and to rebuild its broken hollowed out institutions, and to restore the dignity and supremacy of the American Constitution.”

— Kenneth Th Webb

VII

But something else was stated at Munich which brings fear and dread to all. Somewhere else Marco Rubio had mentioned the term multiculturalism.

He did not bother to attend Munich to reiterate his view. He left it to a minor official to do it.

When the American representative spoke, he stated that multiculturalism is something that we need to return to and that it is three-way – three superpowers – America, Russia and China. China will have the south of the globe. Russia will have the centre of the globe. America will have the west of the globe.

Tonight, as Kyiv yet gain under ballistic missile bombardment, as well as other cities in Ukraine, not to mention the occupied territories, all the dots suddenly joined up.

I have said this before. We live in the most dangerous time in the world’s history since the end of the Second World War, even more dangerous than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

We have also learned tonight, and it hurts because it is like being slapped across the face by someone regarded as one’s closest friend, that’s America can never again be trusted.

Why? Because the verdict openly stated at Munich 2026 was that ‘America had become adversarial’.

I would never have anticipated hearing those words.

There is a quiet and unshakeable defiance that the American people should take good note of. It was expressed to them by the descendant of the person they had fought quite rightly to overthrow to then obtain their independence and to give the world the American Constitution.

All that has been torn up. The world has no respect for the United States of America.

Europe will never agree to America holding a position of authority. It is no longer that arrogant self-appointed leader of the free world.

At the 2026 NATO conference Davos, Trump, as usual, kept everyone waiting. And when he did eventually grace the room with his presence, it was pathetic to see. A bloated old man, grumbling, and then muttering with such defiance without any prompting from anyone “I’m the boss“.

That was when everything changed. The man needed to be humoured like one humours a very ancient embittered relative.

*Lost in a Quagmire of One’s Own Making… K Th W*

A little later - the lens always captures reality when it is least wanted - NATO members are talking amongst themselves, and ‘the boss’ stands alone on the other side of the room doing a very good impression of an airhead – why am I here? What am I doing? Why is nobody paying attention to me the most important person in the world?

That final moment before ‘black-out’

The lights dimmed, and metaphorically all across the United States of America the lights went out and they will not come on again for at least half a century, certainly not in my lifetime. K Th W

Image by Clay LeConey @clayleconey through Unsplash via Squarespace

The lights dimmed, and metaphorically all across the United States of America the lights went out and they will not come on again for at least half a century, certainly not in my lifetime.

Kenneth Th Webb

7 October 2026

Gloucestershire and Liverpool