Truth is the new cultural frontline

IT has become very clear that Russian President Putin was planning his attack on Ukraine for years. He had been plotting on the chessboard, seeking to move pieces around. With Brexit, he wanted to detach Britain from the EU to weaken economic and defence ties.

He also funnelled money into the US 2016 presidential campaign to support Donald Trump, who he misled and bamboozled easily, and Trump weakened US democracy. And he lied and lied about his evil intentions, as trained KGB liars do.

But Putin has miscalculated. Plucky Ukraine has fought for freedom, just as Britain fought in World War II for freedom and democracy against tyranny.

Senior Russian generals are reported as having been killed in the fighting. The Russians can advance, but only slowly. And holding territory in an insurgency is not the same as conquering it.

A guerrilla war could go on for years, because Russia will not subdue the Ukrainian desire for freedom and democracy – they want to rule themselves, not be ruled by Russia. Ukraine and the West have never threatened Russia. We wanted to trade with them in the hope that eventually they would change.

Well, they haven’t. It’s still the same old-style, aggressive KGB Russia of the Cold War era. And now we have opened our eyes to their subversion and lies.

Putin is a trained liar and his internet and Twitter trolls have been pumping out lies and propaganda for years, especially using Facebook.

This all makes it even more important to get news from trusted journalistic sources. Truth is the new cultural frontline. The battleground goes all the way to Ukraine.

Whose side are you on? Readers must decide, and act in defence of freedom and truth. Buying and reading local papers is a part of that.

It’s not perfect, but (unlike with Russian media) we are allowed to disagree, and you won’t be carted off to prison if you do. At times like these, our party political differences and differences on issues like Brexit and climate change are not as important as our common, shared belief in democracy, justice and the rule of law.

Alan Lipton Bristol