The Russian president is the impediment to US proposals for a ceasefire. But Europe knows that this administration is unlikely to act accordingly

As attention focused on diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine this week, the UN human rights office published a powerful reminder of its horrors. A new report on children’s lives since the Russian invasion was prefaced with a nursery director’s description of their response to shelling: “Some children fall to their knees – their legs do not move because they are afraid. There are no tears, no crying or screaming, the child just freezes. One child stood there holding a toy and did not let go of it all day.”

These are the survivors. Hundreds of children have been killed since February 2022. Hundreds of thousands are internally displaced, and 1.7 million are refugees, many of them separated from a parent. At least 200 have been forcibly taken to Russia. Ukraine matters – not just strategically, but humanely.

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