One of the mechanisms Europe has at its disposal to make up the shortfall of American backing is to fully seize frozen Russian assets held in the region.

President Trump’s threat to abandon Ukraine added urgency to plans to fund security or reconstruction with the roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank.

And without an American backstop, which Trump refuses to provide, even European forces in Ukraine would not be an adequate deterrent against future Russian aggression.    Instead, the only truly effective option to save Ukraine is to seize the over $200bn in Russian assets currently frozen in Europe and to commit that money to supporting Ukraine’s economy,