Terri Bloore is Head of Campaigns for Conservatives Women’s Organisation London and stood as Mayoral Candidate for Newham in May 2026

There is a strange feeling when something you have just experienced becomes international news.

Recently I was travelling out of Ukraine on the diplomatic train carrying Boris Johnson, Carl Bildt and other international delegates who had attended the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv. We crossed safely into Poland at Dorohusk.

Shortly afterwards, a Russian drone struck a passenger train at Yahodyn, close to the Polish border, on the same route we had just travelled. The train had been evacuated and, thankfully, nobody was killed.

It has been suggested that our diplomatic train may have been the intended target, although we do not know that and should not pretend otherwise.

What we do know is that Russia attacked a civilian railway used by Ukrainians and by international delegations travelling into and out of the country. The obvious response is relief. We were fortunate. But Ukrainians do not get to cross a border and leave this behind.

Russian missiles and drones are part of their daily reality. Trains still run, people still go to work, children still go to school and businesses continue to operate. The fact that an attack attracts international attention because Boris Johnson and other foreign delegates had just passed through says something uncomfortable about how accustomed the rest of us have become to what Ukrainians experience every day.

My working love affair with Kyiv began in 2012. I have visited regularly ever since, watching the city and country change through governments and presidents, the annexation of Crimea and, ultimately, Russia’s full-scale invasion.

I was back last week for the Yalta European Strategy conference, convened by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. It brought political leaders, academics, military figures, investors and policymakers to Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s future, European security and what the West does next.

After what happened on our journey home, I am more convinced than ever that these gatherings matter.

There is an obvious danger of Ukraine fatigue. Other conflicts compete for political attention, governments change and domestic priorities intrude. A war that once dominated every front page gradually moves further down the news agenda.

That is precisely what Putin needs. Russia does not require Western support for Ukraine to disappear overnight. It needs us gradually to become tired, distracted or intimidated.

One of the most interesting exchanges at YES concerned the importance of physically being in Ukraine. Jared Kushner, interviewed by Victor Pinchuk, spoke warmly about his own visit and said seeing Ukraine had given him an understanding of both its extraordinary achievements and their cost.

But when asked about returning, Kushner said: “We’re not really into performative diplomacy”, arguing that engagement could happen by telephone and Zoom and that the administration would return when its physical presence was necessary.

He is right about one thing. Visits without outcomes achieve little. Ukraine does not need politicians arriving simply for photographs. But presence is not inherently performative.

If Russia’s intention is to make travelling to Ukraine feel increasingly dangerous, continuing to send senior political, diplomatic and business delegations demonstrates that intimidation will not work. Being there also makes it considerably harder to reduce this war to an abstract argument about budgets and diplomatic settlements.

Boris Johnson made the wider strategic point forcefully at YES. Putin, he argued, “has always had clarity of purpose”. The question is whether we have demonstrated the same. He warned that if commitments already made to Ukraine are allowed to erode, “we need a better plan”. That challenge now belongs to our Government and our allies.

Britain has played an important role in Ukraine’s defence and should continue to do so. Andy Burnham was right to make Kyiv his first overseas visit as Prime Minister. But political presence must be accompanied by practical support: air defence, military capability, sanctions, pressure on Russian revenues and the long-term security arrangements Ukraine will need. The relationship should also increasingly move beyond aid.

Ukraine has become one of the world’s most important centres of defence innovation. Britain should be asking not only what Ukraine needs from us, but what our Armed Forces, manufacturers and technology companies can learn from Ukraine. Deeper cooperation can strengthen British defence supply chains, support skilled jobs and help rebuild capabilities needed for a much less stable world.

This is why conferences such as YES matter. Bringing politicians, investors, academics and policymakers into Ukraine forces discussions about security, reconstruction and investment back into contact with reality.

That reality became rather more immediate for those of us travelling home on that day. But we should keep it in perspective. We had a frightening reminder of what Russia is doing. Ukrainians live with it.

I have been coming to Kyiv since 2012. What I have never seen is Ukrainians accepting that their country’s future should be decided in Moscow. We should show the same resolve.

If attacks such as this are intended to frighten international visitors away, the answer is straightforward.

We should keep going back.