There is something that keeps me awake at night occasionally, and it isn't really the idea that Russian tanks are suddenly going to appear on the streets of London.

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It is the feeling that Europe is changing around us, becoming more dangerous and unstable, and that somehow we are all getting used to it. Drones crossing NATO airspace, Russian warships and European military aircraft coming dangerously close to each other, Germany moving troops east, strikes landing close to the Polish border, North Korean soldiers fighting and dying in Europe.

None of this is normal, or at least it shouldn't be, but it has started to feel normal because there is always something else the next day.

Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine and Ukraine attacked Russia. I could have written that sentence at almost any point over the last four and a half years, and I think that is part of what bothers me.

A huge war is happening on the edge of Europe and somehow it can now be another notification on the phone before we make a coffee and get on with the day.

British Defence Intelligence estimates that around half a million Russian troops have been killed since the full-scale invasion began, with total casualties far higher. If somebody had told me in February 2022 that Russia could absorb losses on that scale and still keep going, I'm not sure I would have believed them.

Yet that is where we are, with Moscow even turning to North Korea for manpower. North Korean troops fighting in Europe should have made everyone stop, but even that has become part of the background.

The........

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