Zelensky, meanwhile, seems determined to die on the battlefield. But Ukraine doesn’t need a memorial stone for a war hero: It needs a commander who will fight on from elsewhere.

The Ukrainian president, who has not always been convincing in his political career, would therefore be doing his people a great service if he were to flee Ukraine before it surrenders, not as a defeated man, but as a crystallizing figure for his nation.

And he would immediately set up a government-in-exile. It could have its base in Warsaw or Berlin or (like the Polish government in exile during World War II) in London. Not in Washington, which is too far away and would appear like Zelensky’s farewell to European politics.

In fact, with a government-in-exile in Europe, he would continue by all means the struggle for his country’s independence and its right to self-determination. Most elements seem to suggest that this government in exile could rely on a Ukrainian resistance movement at home.

The free world, forced into a spectator role on the battlefields, would have to support Ukraine even after a ceasefire — through a determined policy of isolating Russia on the political, economic, cultural, sporting, scientific and civil society levels.