As the war in Ukraine drags on, the costs for Europe are mounting

the leisurely European summer is the intimidating to-do list that awaits one’s return. With war still raging on the ’s doorstep, this feels particularly daunting. Regular meetings of the union’s ministers are about to resume, just days after the six-month anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. Ukraine has defended itself against its massive neighbour more effectively than many in Europe thought possible back then. But as winter looms, Europe is starting to feel the war’s side-effects more keenly. Keeping the united despite painfully high energy prices will be a challenge. Nobody sitting around an summit table is in any doubt over who has borne the brunt of Russia’s aggression. Ukrainians have been slaughtered, and Ukraine will one day need the kind of financial aid western Europe received after the second world war to rebuild its shattered cities. The price tag for Russia has also been hefty. Its army has been humbled, it is heavily sanctioned, most of its remaining civil liberties have been snuffed out and Mr Putin has been proved incompetent as well as despotic.