Russia goes to war via the Channel

SIR – As the Russian fleet sails south, we are able to find only two ships to show our strength.

We have no carrier. The chance of a commissioned nuclear submarine being built before 2026 is unlikely. As France and Germany sit down with Russia over Ukraine, Britain is not even invited to the table.

The conference chaired by the Foreign Secretary has failed to produce any new initiative to solve the Syrian crisis. Meanwhile, Russia controls the air, now the sea and will eventually complete its mission.

The civilian suffering gets worse each day. We are still shipping arms and technical know-how to Saudi Arabia enabling it to bomb Yemen.

Just what is going on in the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office? Wincanton, Somerset SIR – Russian warships in the Channel have passed my cliff-top home outside Hastings. The last time they came this way they went on to defeat by Japan and triggered the revolution of 1905. Will it be different this time? Fairlight, East Sussex SIR – No doubt the Russian navy intended to convey a message in its passage through the North Sea and the English Channel on October 21, Trafalgar Day.

No doubt the Russians would care to forget another October 21, in 1904, when their mighty Baltic fleet, on the way to its doom in the Far East, imagined itself under Japanese attack near the Dogger Bank. The Russian battleships and cruisers opened fire on their own ships and a number of British fishing boats. British and Russian seamen were killed. Thornhill, Dumfriesshire