21 March 2022 •
SIR – The West seems to think that a settlement between Russia and Ukraine is imminent. President Biden is going to Brussels to guarantee such a settlement. Only Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, is assessing Russia realistically: “If a country is serious about negotiations, it doesn’t indiscriminately bomb civilians that day.” She has warned that Vladimir Putin will resort to “worse and worse methods”. These will include the destruction of us.
The West had a huge opportunity to degrade the Russian military but has failed to do so, while allowing one small country to fight Russian might alone. Western officials believe Russia has enough firepower to bombard Ukrainian cities for weeks. Those bombardments can be switched to Poland and other Nato countries, and surely will be when Mr Putin, confident in Nato’s inaction, seeks to destroy all Western opposition.
Philip Hodson
Newmarket, Suffolk
SIR – What will it take to make the West finally intervene in Ukraine? When refugee numbers reach five million? Ten million? When the country’s infrastructure is completely ruined? When the defenders face starvation?
Vladimir Putin cannot countenance retreat so will continue his scorched-earth policy until Ukraine is destroyed. Refugees will have no homeland to return to and sanctions will take years to change the dynamic inside Russia.
Unless the invader is forced to withdraw soon, Ukraine will cease to exist in any meaningful way. That is the reality we face.
Iain Gilmour
Shrewsbury
SIR – It is dangerous at this stage to be calling Vladimir Putin a war criminal and threatening a trial, as President Biden and Gordon Brown have done – however justified the epithet might be. When it is possible that an aggressor might not achieve his aims, he should always be able to see a way out; like the “golden bridge to the West” offered by General Kutuzov to Napoleon in 1812.
When Hitler was finally cornered he ordered the total destruction of what remained of Germany. Had he been able, who doubts that he would have tried to destroy the wider world? Hitler did not have nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin does.
Michael Blackstaff
Dorchester
SIR – It is no surprise that two thirds of Russians don’t believe the unspeakable crimes being committed in their name in Ukraine. How can you believe the unbelievable?
The answer lies in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He explains how the “big lie” repeated often becomes deeply embedded in the mind and people simply cannot believe that lies of that scale could be told to them by those they trust. Even when faced with concrete truths to the contrary, they still doubt the truth. Mr Putin is following in the steps of his Nazi tutor.
Jonathan Carr
Shrewsbury
SIR – Commander Alan York (Letters, March 19) asks why we do not fly the Ukrainian flag across the country.
We are doing so in Barnoldswick. There is one around the corner from our house and one in the town centre. Perhaps this is due to our town – in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974 when it was annexed by Lancashire – having an independent spirit.
Robin Higgins
Barnoldswick, Lancashire
“Unless the invader is forced to withdraw soon, Ukraine will cease to exist in any meaningful way. That is the reality we face.”
Still the asshole Biden washes his hands of it; staying that European troops can go in, but he won’t be going in under any circumstances. He refuses even to expedite Poland’s plan to augment Ukraine’s Air Force.
Biden’s lack of integrity is breathtaking: he promised “unwavering support” and delivered the exact opposite.
Putin waited 14 years for a weak POTUS to move on Ukraine. Then he waited another 4 years until another weak POTUS came into office. So much for the policy of peace through strength with Biden, he doesn’t subscribe to it. But this is also the same POTUS that screwed the other NATO nations and unilaterally pulled out of Afghanistan and left thousands of US citizens to fend for themselves there.
See also:
https://theweichertreport.wordpress.com/2022/03/21/is-russia-losing-in-ukraine-dont-be-so-sure/
I don’t know what analysts he’s talking about, most of the analysts I’ve heard are spouting the same thing he is, that Putin is winning. Don’t ask the analysts just ask the captured Russians. Putin is losing. Why would he call up 17 year olds? Why would he disable plane’s eject parachutes? Why would he have Chechens standing behind the lines and shooting deserters and the wounded? Why would he leave his precious dead troops littered across Ukraine? Why does he lie about his intentions and the daily results? These are not the things winning sides do.
No he’s not winning militarily. But he intends to win by genocide and and destruction. And he will succeed unless Ukraine receives a colossal increase in military, intel, economic, strategic and yes, even diplomatic support.
Priority has to be offensive weapons such as cruise missiles.
Then again, Ukraine succeeded showing the world the true Putin and Russia. It will take generations to repair what little imagine they had or what disillusionment they had before Putin’s acts of genocide. In that sense Ukraine has already won and disproven any notion of brotherhood between Ukraine and Mordor.
We shouldn’t lose sight of the slow continual destruction of our society. Yes I admire our intestinal fortitude but as long as the White House is led by a demented dick or is being advised by idiots it will be a tough road for our people.