This conflict is the shop window for the West's resolve. If we buckle, other dictators will unleash their war machines, writes SIR IAIN DUNCAN SMITH

A week ago I was in Ukraine, observing a programme of work to help soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. If Russia won, President Zelensky would have to negotiate a ruinous peace, cleaving his country in two, and would likely be forced into exile so the Kremlin could install a puppet government in Kyiv It's easy to imagine Putin's forces ploughing across the fields of eastern and central Ukraine unopposed with Kyiv in their crosshairs China's President Xi Jinping has staked huge political capital on his country's 'no limits friendship' with Russia Iain Duncan Smith travelled to Ukraine to observe a programme of work to help soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder Getting straight to the point, he said: 'Ukraine is losing the war. The intelligence officer wouldn't speculate but it's easy to imagine Putin's forces ploughing across the fields of eastern and central Ukraine unopposed with Kyiv in their crosshairs. Soldiers from 68th brigade of Ukrainian army attend military training in Donbas Region Recruits of the 'Alcatraz' assault battalion composed of ex-prisoners prepare for medical and trench training in Donetsk Oblast Ukrainian soldier tests a fiber-optic-controlled drone designed for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, near Kyiv Civilians participate in trench warfare training during a 'Test Week' organized by the 3rd Assault Brigade in Kyiv Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a rocket strike on a residential building in Poltava Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out fire in an apartment building in Poltava Ukraine simply cannot compete. irefighters are at work to put out a fire that broke out in a heavily damaged residential building following a missile strike in Poltava on February 1 Rescuers carry the body of a person found under debris in Poltava on February 1 The missile strike on Saturday hit a residential block and left the apartment building destroyed Rubble lies in a yard of a residential house heavily damaged by Russian drone in Kharkiv A body found under debris, lies covered in front of an apartment building hit by a dron strike in Sumy, Ukraine Onlookers gather in front of a damaged hotel following a Russian missile attack in Odesa I was struck by how many asserted that this wasn't America's war, that their critical interests lay elsewhere in Israel and Taiwan.