If Simon Jenkins believes the west is flirting with disaster in its support of Ukraine, that’s a viewpoint (In Taiwan, as in Ukraine, the west is flirting with disaster, 3 August). However, to describe it as a “border dispute of the sort that occurs in most corners of the world” is the kind of falsehood that would delight those in the Kremlin who seek to justify an annexation of Ukraine.
The choices are stark, but clear. The west either continues to give Ukraine the military aid it needs to resist, until it can negotiate a peace settlement on its own terms, or – as Mr Jenkins would have it – it ceases such aid, pushes Ukraine to accede to Russia’s seizure of territory and demands and calls it what it is, a disastrous defeat for liberal democracy.
Clive Solomon
London
