I REALIZE that inveighing against spheres of influence may come across as naïve. On the other hand, the sad state of Ukraine now came about because of a contest between spheres of influence. On the one hand, Ukraine earlier sought membership both in NATO and in the European Union. That was President Zelenskyy's lament when he addressed the German Bundestag. 'We were appealing for membership in the European Union.' But the EU was not at fault alone.

The membership of Ukraine in the union was stymied by a government then in place at Kyiv that was obviously subservient to Moscow — which just makes the point clear that spheres of influence tend to create victims of States.