Anthony O’Neill on the dangers of a proxy war; Robin Milner-Gulland on the need for patient diplomacy; Adam Lawson on Ukraine’s right to self-determination; and David Copsey on Putin’s long-term ambitions
Thank you Simon Tisdall (The long, bloody history of proxy wars should be a warning to Johnson in Ukraine, 20 February). Boris Johnson’s perennial boosterism is never truthful and I hope this particular mad idea never sees the light of day.
Yes, bring Ukraine into Nato and answer Putin’s accusation head-on, or stay entirely out of the argument and protect those states who are already in Nato against the certain interference that will follow. The much criticised offer of helmets by the German government is of the same substance as Johnson’s rhetoric. A proxy war would destroy Ukrainians’ westward, anti-Putin-kleptocracy ambitions.
Anthony O’Neill
Glasgow
