Susan O’Keeffe: Europe’s great challenge will be to remain united against Putin’s tyranny

The EU has never been tested at war and must now stand together in what could be a dark and lengthy conflict

‘Now Putin, his oligarchs and the wider group of business investors have seized their moment and thrown down the gauntlet to the world.’ Picture: Getty

The sense of betrayal on the part of Ukrainian people this week has been heart-wrenching in its normality. They are people who believed and wanted to believe that “their brothers” who “speak the same language as us” would never take the giant step to invade. Now they feel let down. Not in the way the world does, but literally as if family had turned to destroy them.

They knew the threat was there and had ...