Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. As the war in Ukraine enters its third month, one wonders how much longer it will drag on. We can only hope for an early end to the destruction. In the meantime, please allow me to make some observations. First, there is a symmetry between the background of this war and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Then, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev planned to station (nuclear-armed) missiles in Cuba, and US president John F. Kennedy reacted by demanding that Khrushchev withdraw his plan, or face American attacks, a third world war notwithstanding. Khrushchev backed down, and Kennedy was hailed as a hero. Modern Russia now, even though deprived of her republics, still regards herself in her former glory. The United States (and the West in general) has not given due consideration to this damaged self-esteem. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as the leader of a small neighbour, is also consumed with self-glory. He forgets that a war fought in your own country cannot be but a lost war. Russian troops and tanks may one day withdraw, but the massive destruction in factories, flats, hospitals, shopping malls, parks and roads will take a long time to repair. He has a lot of support from the West, especially the US, who may well be prepared to fight till the last Ukrainian. Second, China could not have been forewarned of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As proof, consider the hurried withdrawal of her students and businessmen from the country after the war started . China seemed caught unprepared. I think that, for the Chinese leadership, war was very far from their minds because many avenues had not been explored or exhausted. To the Chinese, an issue as momentous as sovereignty over Taiwan cannot and will not be settled on the battlefield, hopefully. Third, it is clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not read Sun Wu, also respectfully referred to as Sun Tzu, who lived during the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history, about 2,600 years ago. He taught that the supreme art of war is to win without sending in an army. Russia has a bearlike reputation for disregarding or even despising finesse, and it is only natural for Putin, as a true Russian, to behave as he does. K.M. Lau, Mid-Levels East Where’s China’s no-limits friendship with Ukraine? I can understand why the European Union and the United States doubt China’s neutrality on the war in Ukraine. On February 4, Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement that the friendship between China and Russia “has no limits”. It is unfortunate that it came just before the invasion of Ukraine. Words matter. Unless President Xi is able to say that he also has an unlimited friendship with Ukraine, he will be suspected of having a pro-Russian bias. During war, it is difficult to have an unlimited friendship with both sides but President Xi has set himself that challenge if he wishes to appear neutral. Bruce Couchman, Ottawa, Canada Putin pushing nations into Nato’s arms Your correspondent said in a letter (“History shows West’s role in Ukraine war”, April 27 ) that the US aggressively expanded Nato after the Soviet Union collapsed. He should understand that Nato is a defensive organisation and it is up to individual sovereign nations to apply to join it, and that decisions to invite countries to membership are made jointly by existing Nato members, not just the US. Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s indiscriminate destruction of civilian targets there coupled with the 2014 invasion of Crimea and threats to Moldova amply demonstrate why nations in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia are either members of Nato or are considering applying. Eric Edwin Taylor, Sai Kung