I need your help today with an answer to a question that the Prime Minister seemed unable or unwilling to answer yesterday. 

I suspect you may be more forthcoming than Jacinda Ardern. Well, I hope so anyway. 

It’s to do with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and his appalling ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

The Prime Minister was asked by a reporter yesterday, “Is Putin a war criminal?” 

This was at the announcement by the Government that it’s sending $5 million and surplus stock of used helmets and body armour to Ukraine. 

Which, just as an aside, is such a New Zealand response, isn’t it? “We can help, we’ve got these helmets and some body armour. We don’t need them anymore, Grant was just going to put them on Trade Me. But hey, you have them. They’ve been through the wash…they’re all good to go.” 

So, it was following the announcement about the helmets and body armour when a reporter asked the Prime Minister this question: “Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal? Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?”. This was the Prime Minister’s response: 

Quote: “It’s not for me to make a judgement - that is for our international bodies to undertake. Is what he’s doing morally wrong and reprehensible? Absolutely. Should he be held to account by the world? Yes.” 

Yes, but is he a war criminal? Arrrr….talk about putting the Arrrr into Ardern. 

And so this is where I need you to jump in today and answer the question that the Prime Minister was unable or unwilling to answer yesterday. “Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?” 

I’ll tell you what I think. It pretty much comes down to two children I saw on the TV news last night. 

After all the images we’ve seen and all the reports we’ve heard, the whole thing came crashing home to me big time last night watching a report about two children, lying in beds side-by-side in hospital, recovering from their physical injuries and facing what will probably be a lifetime of emotional injury. 

One was a two-year-old boy with a belly full of shrapnel. And a 15-year-old girl who had her right leg amputated after being hit by a Russian shell last week. 

The head of the hospital where these kids are being treated was so honest when he spoke to the BBC. 

Here’s what he said. Quote: “I hate Russia. The girl who lost her leg was so traumatised, she wouldn’t eat or drink for days. She couldn’t mentally handle it”. 

The doctor went on to say this: “Another boy - a six-year-old with shrapnel in his skull - described without tears or emotion, watching his mother burn to death in their car after it was hit." 

Gut wrenching. Heartbreaking. Call it what you will. But this is the reality behind all the diplomacy, all the political walking-on-eggshells. The reality behind Joe Biden jumping on Air Force One and going to Poland to sit around another big table talking to other guys in suits. 

But it’s all charades, isn’t it? It’s all very grave - and they’ve all got their serious faces on. But it’s still all very comfortable for the politicians and the diplomats. There are no 15-year-olds having legs amputated where these politicians hang out. The diplomats are nowhere near the two-year-olds full of shrapnel. It’s all just talk, talk and more talk. 

And as long as we have politicians like our Prime Minister refusing to just tell it like it is, refusing to say ‘yes, actually, Putin is a war criminal. I know he hasn’t stood trial, but I don’t care…because, in my eyes, he is committing horrid crimes on an hourly basis.” 

As long as we get this dribble and diplomatic niceties - what is going to stop Putin or any other nutcase like him from doing the same thing all over again, somewhere else? 

If we’re going to get all tongue-tied and talk about it not being our place to make judgement - as Jacinda Ardern did yesterday - then just leave the helmets and the body armour in the cupboard…or just stick on TradeMe. 

Because unless we are prepared to tell it like it is, then it’s just a token gesture isn’t it?