Will efforts at achieving peace be scuppered by those who would rather see the conflict remain frozen until one side takes all, asks Theo Kyriacou. Plus letters from Russell Caplan, Jill Read and Gary Bennett
Gabrielle Rifkind’s point that a willingness to compromise by all sides is the only way out of an unfolding international crisis certainly holds true (I’m a conflict mediator. This is our way out of the Ukraine crisis, 9 February). The USSR did pull its missiles out of Cuba as Rifkind states, but the US reciprocated by withdrawing comparable missiles from Turkey and promised not to invade the island.
In 2013 in Ukraine, in the midst of a worsening political crisis, France, Germany, Russia and Poland and the then Ukrainian government led by Viktor Yanukovych and most of the Ukrainian opposition thrashed out a peace plan to take the country forward. The more nationalist elements of Ukrainian society, backed by hawks in the US and elsewhere, rejected the plan and there followed a constitutional crisis, a Russian invasion and dismemberment of Ukraine. No nuclear annihilation for the world, but a real catastrophe for the people of Ukraine.
