Dear Editor,
Patrick Cockburn's eloquent plea for NATO not to make the mistake of intervening in Ukraine ("Putin has already failed but Nato's errors may rescue him" i 10.03.22) fails because of one major factor. Putin's war is intended to weaken NATO and the EU, and to remove the United States as a guarantor of Europe's security. He wants NATO troops and rockets out of Poland and the Baltic States and to restore the pre-1990 status quo. Ukraine is merely the next stage in the conflict. Georgia, Crimea, Brexit, Trump's attempt to dismember NATO, were merely earlier phases of it.
That is why Poland should supply its MiGs to Ukraine despite Biden suddenly developing cold feet. Also that is why Western countries should pull out every stop to have the UN administer humanitarian aid corridors in Ukraine and offer a preventative no fly zone over Western Ukraine. The general condemnation of Russia's invasion on March 2nd by the UN General Assembly, if repeated now, could circumvent Russian (and even possible Chinese) vetoes in the Security Council and act in accordance with Article 51 to intervene against war and to supply humanitarian aid in Ukraine. The UN had done this in the past, under Uniting for Peace resolutions, to protect Korea, Lebanon and Congo.
It is ironic too that Ukraine until now has been one of the most generous countries to supply reliable troops on UN missions and that Putin justified his invasion under that same Article 51 in seeking to preserve the "independence" of the fictitious republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
One way or another, Putin must be stopped in his cynical bid to resuscitate Russian hegemony in Eastern Europe and his nuclear threats exposed as bluff. Not even Russia wants nuclear war.
Yours faithfully,
Wiktor Moszczynski
Copy of letter to Editor of "i"
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