SIR – My old boss, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, is right to say that Vladimir Putin is no Hitler. But he is an admirer of Stalin and an apologist for him. And history tells us that the only way to deal with such leaders is to show strength.
Would Putin take the risk of plunging the world into war by attacking Ukraine if US and British forces were there? Instead of withdrawing those of our forces who are in the country on training missions we should reinforce them and make it clear that they would defend themselves if they came under attack.
I accept this carries risk and ups the stakes. But by appeasing Putin we simply put off the day of reckoning, as Chamberlain and Daladier did in 1938.
Paul Laing
Counsellor, FCO (retd)
Ixworth, Suffolk
SIR – Of course the Russians won’t re-invade Ukraine. They only want to admire the famous cathedral in Kyiv.
Bob Burgess
Chester, Cheshire
SIR – The feebleness of Western leaders and Nato have made a Russian invasion of Ukraine a one-way bet.
At the very least, Nato could by now have made it clear that a Russian invasion would provoke a strong response in the form of Nato battle groups coming to Ukraine’s aid with supplies of the latest weapons to train a large Ukrainian reserve army, which could turn Ukraine into a Russian Vietnam. The threat of more sanctions is like water off a duck’s back to Putin.
Only a strong response with a military element will have any deterrent effect on Putin’s dictatorship and his intention of rebuilding the old Soviet Union.
So it’s time for this intervention now, or we face a re-run of Munich and total Western humiliation.
Noel Baptiste
Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire
SIR – Sorry, but isn’t the situation in Ukraine resolvable without war? Putin needs telling there is nothing to fear from Nato if he behaves himself and stops bullying neighbouring countries.
Indeed there are ethnic and patriotic Russians within Ukraine who would quite like to rejoin the old motherland. But a huge majority in Ukraine would not, and simply want to embrace an independent country with its traditional culture.
Putin doesn’t want Nato near his borders, but even if he occupied Ukraine (cue never-ending civil war thereafter) he would immediately have Poland and others at the fence.
How can a man with the mentality of Hitler be allowed to perpetrate his ambitions in this day and age?
Phil Glass
Trethowel, Cornwall
“Would Putin take the risk of plunging the world into war by attacking Ukraine if US and British forces were there? Instead of withdrawing those of our forces who are in the country on training missions we should reinforce them and make it clear that they would defend themselves if they came under attack.”
Well said sir.
Biden has done a full Afghanistan on Ukraine.
The only way to avoid the futile loss of Ukrainian lives is for 180° policy shift from Biden. Which won’t happen. Largely because putler’s agents in the US have done their job, which is to poison opinion against helping Ukraine and provide sympathy for the fascist murder gang in the Kremlin.
That well known Goebbells-like nazi subhuman Dmitry Kiselyov has already started the false flag claims:
Russian media begins propaganda push amid fears of Ukraine invasion
https://mol.im/a/10510145
History tells us that appeasing terrorists like Putin is doomed to failure. Making concessions to the mafia state is also doomed to failure. Hitler got what he wanted in 1938/9 when he annexed Austria, then Sudetenland, did it stop there? Nope, it just give Hitler along with his buddy, the green light to start ww2. The West are doing exactly the same now, and conceding anything to Russia will just encourage them to blackmail, or threaten to nuke anyone, unless they get their way.
What we should be doing now is providing Ukraine with batteries of cruise missiles.
Ukraine can then say : “if you send missiles flying through the air to Kyiv, ours will be on their way to Moscow.”
And now perhaps similar to WWII, the war was a stalemate in Europe until the US joined in. Biden has always been wrong on foreign policy and even now surrounded by Generals he ignores them because he knows best….right……just like he did in Afghanistan.
We got infiltrated by ruSSian propaganda. What Bush, Obama, Trump were doing and Biden keeps doing is unamerican and shameful. We should never have entered a shithole like Afghanistan in the first place. We belong to the Euro-Atlantic-Pacific sphere. We should have sent troops into Ukraine months ago after signing a US/UA defense treaty. We should shit at WWIII, since it would never happen. Biden is an even bigger coward than Trump. But the age of proud Americans seems to be over. We lost White pride, we lost our sense of humor, we lost our freedom and we lost our courage. Instead of that hordes of complete idiots keep idolizing Putin. I say deport all RuSSia-lovers to the shithole!
Alas, those are our words, but we are completely helpless to change this deplorable situation. It’s the decision of a single, senile coward that will help a shithole like mafia land to kill many thousands of innocent people.
These statements from Biden are interpreted by Russia as weakness and are the direct cause of these threats. Whether they represent reality or not , it is very foolish to show your cards in such a high stakes poker game.
That’s a WORLD WAR when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another’:It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world.
Biden talks utter crap. An attack on Russia by America: that’s ww3. Defending your ally on his own land is not ww3; not even a declaration of war.