Exchange of the week

Pathways to peace in Ukraine

To The Daily Telegraph

The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, is reported to advocate a trading of Ukrainian land for peace with Russia. We’ve been here before; it was called appeasement. It led to a world war because it did not work.

Nick Reilly, Esher, Surrey

To The Daily Telegraph

Does Germany want Ukraine to lose? Promises of military support have been backed up by little action. In fact, more effort seems to be going into blocking the flow of arms to Ukraine. Is Chancellor Olaf Scholz afraid of Vladimir Putin? Or is he anticipating partition and sees no profit in prolonging the inevitable?

Nicholas Woodeson, London

To The Guardian

Jonathan Powell is absolutely right to point out that a lasting peace cannot be achieved in Ukraine if Russia feels humiliated, as Germany did after the First World War. Ukraine, by definition, cannot defeat Russia – therefore, however unpalatable it may be, it will have to make some territorial concessions, probably in the pro-Russian areas that were de facto Russian territory before the invasion.

But this choice is not Ukraine’s alone. The US-led Western powers have pumped defensive weapons into the country to hurt Russia and slow its advance. These will not change the outcome, only delay it, and the more pain that is inflicted on Russia, the more it will press a hard bargain for peace. If the West really wants to see peace in Ukraine, it must press Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate and agree concessions, with the lever of stopping military supplies. We are driving the agenda by prolonging the conflict, and it is within our power to bring it to an end, if we want to.

Des Senior, Aylesbeare, Devon