Use of humanitarian corridors in a war that inhumanely makes civilians homeless
SIR – Describing the erratic pauses in violence by Russian invaders of Ukraine as “humanitarian corridors” seems akin to applauding a bully for taking a few minutes off from beating his victim.
Andrew C Pierce Barnstaple, Devon
SIR – I was born in 1936. After the Second World War many organisations seemed to promise that such events as we are witnessing in Ukraine could not happen again.
Watching the BBC News channel, I feel ashamed. The world is fiddling while a country burns. To quote Sir Winston Churchill: “It seems to me that we cannot detach ourselves from Europe, and that for our own safety and self-preservation we are bound to make exertions and run risks for the sake of keeping peace.” Let us unite and get rid of this despot.
Elaine Nobbs
Midhurst, West Sussex
SIR – The Western free world will have to stand up to Vladimir Putin sooner or later. Impose the no-fly zone now, to save the lives of women, children, heroic Ukrainian soldiers and their outstanding president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Jane Shute
Calpe, Alicante, Spain
SIR – If I am a Russian pilot, what is the difference between being shot down by a Ukrainian with a missile supplied by Nato and being shot down by a MIG aircraft flown by a Ukrainian pilot from a base in Ukraine?
Paul Jenkins
Swansea
SIR – Vladimir Putin drops a battlefield nuclear bomb on a Ukrainian city, flattening it and producing a dust cloud as bad but no worse than Chernobyl. What does Nato do? Keith Murdoch
Stansted, Essex
SIR – Arbitration or mediation always favours the aggressor. If we had agreed to international arbitration when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands this would almost certainly have resulted in joint sovereignty leading eventually to a total takeover.
If Ukraine agreed to outside arbitration, again this would almost certainly end with Russia occupying territory that it did not hold before the invasion. Arbitration leads to compromise which means one party, even if it is the innocent party, losing something.
David Vaudrey
Doynton, Gloucestershire
SIR – The scale of destruction inflicted on Ukraine by the Russian invasion requires a long-term plan for appropriate restitution.
Economic sanctions against Russia must be maintained – for years if need be – until all Russian troops leave Ukraine, until Crimea and the selfstyled Donbas republics are restored to Ukraine, until those responsible for planning and executing the invasion are handed over to the International Criminal Court to answer for their actions, and until a new Russian government agrees to pay reparations to Ukraine – perhaps $500billion – out of any revenues derived from the sale of resources enabled by the ending of sanctions.
Of course, the West should not wait for those payments before starting the process of reconstruction in Ukraine, but should loan the Ukrainian government the equivalent amount, repayable only out of reparations receipts.
Russia cannot be allowed to return to the comity of civilised nations until it has cleansed itself of the brutality displayed by the Putin regime. During that time, Russian sportsmen and women, and Russian arts practitioners, must be boycotted by the West, unless they explicitly denounce the Putin regime.
David Elstein London SW15
SIR – My late grandfather told me of the horrors of both world wars, and how he adopted a 13-year-old Austrian girl who escaped on the Kindertransport. She became a sister to my Mum and her sister. His words, “never again”, sound rather hollow now.
Graeme Warner
Manchester
SIR – The Government was aware, from American and British intelligence, of the likelihood of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet even after hostilities began there was no sign that the Home Office had made any preparations for the likely exodus of refugees.
As a consequence we have shown ourselves to be niggardly, ungenerous and even more bureaucratic than our
EU neighbours. The vast majority of refugees are women, children and old folk. Men of fighting age are back defending their country. Yet Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has insisted that the reason for our bureaucratic approach is “security”. That rationale rings hollow when I think of our welcome to Russian oligarchs.
I am ashamed when I hear of distressed Ukrainians who have abandoned homes and belongings, often under fire, being subjected to a chaotic process requiring online applications, appearances at “appointments” (or not), and being sent between capital cities across Europe to make applications.
These are not economic migrants – they are fleeing for their lives from a merciless aggressor. Our country needs to demonstrate our values by helping these brave people.
Nigel Hurst
Luppitt, Devon
SIR – I would love to be able to offer rooms to Ukrainian refugees, but my house is not big enough. However, in this East Devon village we have a dozen “second homes” that are seldom, if ever, used. Every morning when I draw back my curtains I look out on the front of three such houses. One was occupied twice (briefly) in the last three years and the other two not at all.
I believe that houses like these should be requisitioned by the Government for use in this crisis. If refugees were to be placed in our village we would come together as a community to help and support them.
Second homes are slowly ruining villages and this would be a positive outcome to a negative situation.
Jean Ransford
Hawkchurch, Devon
SIR – Our little 13th-century church, St Michael’s in Raddington, Somerset, is now decorated with Ukrainian flags. It is well worth a visit at the best of times but now even more so.
The collection last Sunday was given to the crisis and money put into the alms box in the next month will be, too. Colin Snow
Huish Champflower, Somerset
SIR – Daniel Silva’s book The Heist, written in 2014, included the following: “In the mind of the Russian president, the Cold War had never ended in the first place. I warned that the tsar wanted his empire back. I made it clear that Georgia was just the appetiser and that Ukraine, the bread basket of the old union, would be the main course. And what do the Europeans do about it? Nothing.”
Later he wrote: “I told them not to grow dependent on trade with Russia. I pleaded with them not to become addicted to cheap Russian natural gas. And now the Europeans can’t bring themselves to impose meaningful
sanctions on the tsar because it will hurt their economies too much.”
Perhaps we should ask Mr Silva what to do next.
Peter Smeeth
London SW19