02:45
Putin only understands ‘the language of guns’, says Ukrainian soldier at Russia-Ukraine border
Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3163343/ukraine-stand-has-made-putin-more-popular-russia Letters
Ukraine stand-off has made Putin more popular in Russia
- Expecting Russia to go on wanting peace but stop preparing for war is naive given Nato’s expansion eastward
Soldiers take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia on January 13. Russia has rejected Western complaints about its troop buildup near Ukraine, saying it deploys them wherever it deems necessary. Photo: AP
It is great that the United States has stopped trying to repeat its only partly successful military intervention in Korea (“The Ukraine-Russia crisis is no longer the US’ problem in a world of rising regional powers”, January 7). In my native Siberia, the policy is likened to a hunter spending a day where he once shot a deer.
Nato’s expansion eastward has stalled not because it reached Ukraine but because we in Russia have successfully tested hypersonic missiles and begun assembling nuclear-capable underwater drones. As even North Korea has not forsworn its nuclear weapons programme, expecting that the Kremlin will go on wanting peace but will stop preparing for war is naive.
Western soldiers leaving Afghanistan after failing to suppress the Taliban is one thing and Russian soldiers staying in Syria after succeeding in imposing a de jure pro-Assad democracy there is another. Both happening in Ukraine with the involvement of countries from the transatlantic security alliance is a very different proposition.
The current stand-off has actually made Russian President Vladimir Putin more popular with his people. Television here almost weekly shows our new weapons and even a special Kalashnikov ordered by countries using Nato cartridges. The message to the West is clear: retreat from Ukraine either honourably without casualties or ignominiously with them.
Mergen Mongush, Moscow