The West is already at war but it is leaving Ukraine to do the fighting
sir – I had to put The Daily Telegraph down for a while yesterday as the tears welled up in my eyes. The words and pictures of yet another dying child in a soldier’s arms got to me.
Western Europe, the United Kingdom and America say we are not at war, but we are. The much-needed arms supplied in ever-growing quantities confirm it. We are leaving Ukraine to do the fighting, that’s all.
We say we fear a world war. Well, what’s this, if it’s not a small nation’s attempt to preserve democracy on behalf of us all?
Vladimir Putin should fear the West, not the other way around. His threat of nuclear aggression says more about his weakness than his strength. Pat Lacy Maidstone, Kent sir – Enough is enough. The photograph that dominated the front page of yesterday’s paper showed a heavily pregnant woman being carried to safety on a stretcher from a bombed maternity and children’s hospital.
It is not credible that the Russian army is so poorly trained and illdisciplined that it resorts to such horrendous attack targets.
There is just one man responsible. The time has come to remove Mr Putin now by whatever means. We, the West, just need to get on with it.
Lt Col Richard King-evans
Hambye, Manche, France
sir – While Ukraine desperately needs relief from Russia’s inhuman bombardment, it is obvious that Mr Putin’s word cannot be trusted. Any pause in fighting will be used by him to reinforce his troops at the front.
The free world must give every possible support to the Ukrainians in their battle for freedom, and Russia must be forced to abandon all territories occupied since 2014.
Meanwhile, Moldova should be fast-tracked into the EU or it too will fall victim to Mr Putin’s ambitions. Carmichael A Thomas Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
sir – What will the UN, Nato and the EU do when Mr Putin’s forces use chemical weapons on the people of Ukraine?
Karen Mccleery
Kings Worthy, Hampshire
sir – More than 70 years ago I flew in the Berlin Airlift. The Russians then were obstructive, difficult and at times dangerous.
Stalin was a megalomaniac, and it seems the present incumbent is no better. Expect nothing but hatred from the Kremlin.
Gerry Abrahams Birchington-on-sea, Kent
sir – In view of the EU’S initial caution, should we offer membership of the Commonwealth to Ukraine? Christopher Jolly
Chigwell, Essex
sir – Bullies such as Vladimir Putin only respond to strength. Now is the time to take a firm stand and state that he will be defeated by all means available, and that Russia will have to pay for all restoration of the Ukrainian infrastructure – most certainly not, as some misguided politicians and commentators are saying, to give him a way to end this war while saving face and claiming some sort of victory. Hugh A Nicol
Errogie, Inverness-shire
sir – Soon after the publication of his book The First World War, my late father, the historian Sir John Keegan (for many years defence editor of The Daily Telegraph), wrote: “It was a dreadful war, cruel in its conduct, destructive in its outcome. From it flow most of the ills of the 20th century: Bolshevism, Fascism, Nazism and the conflicts of narrow nationalism, which by espousing violence to achieve their ends, disturb the continent to this day.
“How saddening it is to contemplate, in the last years of the 20th century, the outbreak of a war in the Balkans fomented by the same irreconcilable nationalists whose tribal instincts and anarchic politics set the massed ranks of Europe’s young manhood in march against each other at the century’s beginning. Has no one learned anything in 100 years?”
How saddened he would be to witness another senseless tragedy within Europe. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a reminder that those ills of the 20th century continue to drip into the 21st.
Mr Putin is a truant from the lessons of history, a truant from responsible governance and a truant from humanity. Matthew Keegan Bruton, Somerset