If the war in Ukraine has been a back-burner issue in a summer dominated by the US-Iran war and a blithe new resident in No 10, the coming weeks will be a sharp reminder of how closely entwined Britain is with the fate of Ukraine.

Not much has yet been said by the Prime Minister – nor Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting, the new foreign and defence secretaries – about the intensification of Britain’s involvement in the conflict through more impactful drone attacks deep inside Russia.

But the news that drones manufactured in Britain by a number of companies have been used to hit industrial and military targets in Russia is a sign that the war has reached a stalemate on its territorial battlefronts, and is moving into an era of massive drone conflict.

We no longer hear much talk about avoiding “escalation” with Russia, because the escalation has already happened. When the new MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli noted in her inaugural address that the “front line is everywhere”, she was referring to hybrid warfare, from cyber attacks to undersea cable threats, and Moscow’s intelligence operations targeting the UK.

Anyway, escalation is a silly word to use about an all-out war to protect a territory from invasion, where the consequences of emboldening Vladimir Putin to cast his eye on other post-Soviet territories, and to seek to destabilise countries across central Europe, are clear to all but the most reality-averse observer.

By supporting Ukraine – with on-off US support during the Trump era – the “coalition of the........

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