I have frequently said that the world is the most unstable it’s ever been in my lifetime.

Now we face the prospect of a bloody war in Europe for the first time in nearly 80 years.

The brinkmanship by President Putin is not unexpected.

His desire to recreate slavic buffer states between Russia and the West is well known, but surely an invasion would be counter-productive, with NATO increasing its forces on his borders?

Only on Tuesday, the Prime Minister confirmed this, saying that in the event of an invasion we would contribute to any deployment to protect our allies.

Already a small training team and anti-tank missiles have been sent to Ukraine and the US has put 8,500 troops on standby.

Further sanctions are also threatened.

Other European countries are slowly joining in, with the dishonourable exception of Germany which, though part of NATO, is increasingly dependent on Russia for energy.

Accordingly, Germany is blocking Estonian arms’ exports to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, 100,000 Russian troops sit threateningly on Ukraine’s border.

Any war would be catastrophic and drawn out, to an extent not seen since World War Two.

And I do not believe Ukraine would fold easily.

After eight years of fighting, battle hardened veterans from Donetsk would ensure the Russians paid in blood for any incursion into their country.

Every diplomatic sinew is being strained to prevent war, with other countries, not least the Baltic states, looking on nervously.

There are genuine fears that they could be next and, as NATO members, we’d be dragged into a wider conflict that’s too horrifying to contemplate.

If ever a crisis should galvanise the West to re-examine where its priorities lie, this surely must be it.