Nato’s leaders gathered in Washington this week to overcome a big gap in their Ukraine strategy—between the principle that Ukraine is free to join the alliance with no veto by Russia and the reality that few are ready to let it in while it is at war with Russia. That proved impossible, so nato made do with lots of smaller commitments of weapons, money and training, and many warm words for Ukraine.

A twisted metaphor stood out: the allies had built “a bridge” to nato membership. This was a “strong, robust, well-lit” thing, declared Antony Blinken, the American secretary of state, adding that it was “short”, too. In their communiqué, moreover, the allies declared that Ukraine’s progress towards nato was “irreversible”.

Diplomatic phrases cannot stop the brutality of a war now in its third year. Arriving in Washington for what was intended to be a celebration of nato’s 75th birthday, leaders were greeted by news of a Russian missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8t. Of some comfort in the short term were weapons for air defences. Allies announced they would provide five more medium-range systems—four American-made Patriot missile batteries and one Franco-Italian SAMP/T system. America, Denmark and the Netherlands were also delivering f-16 fighter jets that would soon be flying over Ukraine. There was no sign, however, that America was yet prepared to let Ukraine use atacms missiles to strike at airfields deep inside Russia.