A risk-averse Germany enters an age of confrontation

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S war feels close in Berlin. Take the escalator in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) down one level, cross the floor and you find its victims: hundreds of refugees seeking a room for the night or a ticket for onward travel. On some days over 10,000 Ukrainians reach Germany’s capital. Reception centres are struggling. But the volunteers swarming the concourse have been heroic. The extent of their organisation is “almost shocking”, beams Zeren Yildirim, a volunteer with the International Rescue Committee.