Last night, BBC2 ran a program on the invasion of Russia by the Germans in the second world war. Hitler was characterised as a man who wanted German to be permanently at war as (for him) it energised the people.

It is hard to think of any other reason for Russia to be invading Ukraine, than to satisfy a similar predilection for conflict from Putin.

Here is Ethan Wu writing on Robert Armstrong’s column this morning.

The news coming out of Ukraine is immensely scary. As I’m writing, Russian troops are in Ukraine, but we don’t know if they are yet on soil controlled by the Ukrainian government. The US says it’s committed to diplomacy “until the tanks roll”. We are living through history, and it is terrifying. I hope any readers in the region are safe.

US markets were on holiday yesterday, and S&P futures are pricing a sharp drop this morning after European stocks sold off. It’s hard to care about what stocks are doing, but it’s what they pay us to do, so onwards.

We are wrong to consider this conflict differently from conflicts in Africa and the terrible suffering this winter in Afghanistan. All suffering is equal, it does not diminish with distance or colour.

But this is a war on our doorstep and one that we need to understand.  For as the placard says, this is about peace in Europe. It has been 80 years since Germany invaded Russia and we need to understand the lessons of that dreadful mistake.

There is no good that comes out of war, for all the  “good intentions” of those going into it.