In Nato’s 73-year history, it has never threatened Russian territory

THERE are many flaws in Ernest B Skidmore’s letter defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Post Letters, April 29):

1. Restrictions on NATO expansion to the East were never agreed after the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers of remaining Pact countries following the departure of East Germany in 1990. There may have been informal guarantees given by individual negotiators, but these were never formalised in the ‘Two plus Four Agreement,’ which President Gorbachev confirmed in 2014: ‘the topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all (in 1990), and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Western leaders didn’t bring it up either.’

2. When Ukraine became an independent sovereign state, ratified by a national referendum, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, there were no qualifications to this independence, such as a commitment not to apply for membership of NATO.

3. Even accepting that President Putin is aggrieved by President Zelensky’s wish that Ukraine should join NATO, Russia is (still) a member of the United Nations, whose Article 33 reads that member states agree that ‘the parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice (my emphasis).’ Not by military invasion!

4. Mr Skidmore will have to explain further what he means by the statement that ‘half of Ukraine is mostly Russian anyway.’ The 2001

Ukrainian Census identified 77.8% of the population as Ukrainian, and 17.3% as Russian.

5. Finally, the whole premise of Mr Skidmore’s argument is based on the idea that NATO is an aggressive alliance, rather than what it is – an alliance of 30 countries for collective security. In its 73-year history, it has never threatened Russian territory, and has only taken military action under UN mandates. It is Vladimir Putin who has ordered the invasion of a neighbouring country, Ukraine, and threatened those countries supporting Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

Nigel Currie Horfield