GEORGE Kerevan rather gives his real views away towards the end of his article (West has unleashed political and military tides it can’t control over war in Ukraine, Feb 13) when he talks of Ukraine “invading” Crimea.
The Crimean peninsula is part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine, confirmed in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum by Russia, amongst others.
Kerevan talks rather grandly of embracing Russians in a peace process, but there seems little scope for negotiation with, let alone embracing, the war criminals currently in charge in Moscow. Nuclear threats have been made by Russia since day one of the current “special military operation” and the logical conclusion of Kerevan’s position would inevitably be to require Ukraine to sacrifice some of its territory and population in order to appease Putin. Perhaps we could offer them East Lothian instead, George?
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Ukrainians are willing to fight for their country, and it seems to me the least we can do is offer our support. If some are unhappy to provide arms then there are many other opportunities to help people who have endured a miserable winter due to Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure (another war crime).
The international community has failed to stop Putin on previous occasions when he has acted illegally. Let’s stop making that mistake and support a brave people fighting for their democratic sovereign state. Some of us in Scotland could learn a lot from them.
Alan Davidson
Edinburgh
WHAT a shocking article by George Kerevan. I bet exactly the same sentiments were being expressed over Czechoslovakia in Britain in 1938. Does Kerevan think Putin would be satisfied if Ukraine ceded the whole of its eastern regions plus Crimea? The Baltic states would be next. The West should do all that is needed to protect Ukraine from Putin’s criminal aggression and restore the borders to those of 2014.
Knowing EP Thompson’s love of freedom and opposition to authoritarianism, I’m sure he’d agree if he was alive.
John Morrison
via thenational.scot
READ MORE: Having economists in politics isn’t always such a bad idea
GEORGE Kerevan is – mostly – right about the problem, but provides no realistic solution. I strongly disagree that Russia will become more fascistic if Putin goes. More likely the Russian elite will fight amongst themselves. This is largely Putin’s war and most of the elite understand that the public has been told lies to justify it.
I also have my doubts about first-strike use of nuclear weapons. You have to consider what Putin, and other Russian neo-imperialists, actually want. That is a return to USSR levels of influence in Europe – not a wasteland.
Michael Lloyd
via thenational.scot
AMERICAN fast-jet aircraft, F16 Raptors, have shot-down three foreign objects detected over US airspace in recent days.
China is being blamed as the source of these objects, however the jury is still out, as it is possible that they are from a private company. Some US folks are asking US government to confirm that these incidents are not UFOs or extra-terrestrials – oh dear.
This is a new possibility with the “free market” of space.
Space, the final frontier, except it’s not, it’s free, it belongs to all, but is available to be exploited by a dominant nation.
READ MORE: Chinese spy balloons may have 'already flown over UK airspace'
In a recent discussion with an ex-colleague the Kessler Syndrome was mentioned, and I was at a lost as to what this was.
Briefly, he explained, and then I remembered the George Clooney and Sandra Bullock film Gravity, where one satellite breaks up and the debris hits and strikes others and the damage cascades, knocking out many of the satellites in low earth orbit on which we all depend.
If, or more likely when, a Kessler event occurs, the debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) could be so dense as to prevent future space launches. So much for Moon or Mars exploration.
It seems that – not satisfied with polluting terra firma, oceans, seas, lochs and rivers – all of us that need communications to our wee bit of flat glass about the size of a bar of chocolate are driving space pollution.
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In 2021, 600,000 pieces of space debris were recorded in LEO, and Scotland has an interest in satellite launch sites in several locations that will increase revenue streams in those areas.
Perhaps we should encourage, if not already planned, the recovery of these satellites and their launch debris which fail or become obsolete. It is recognised that SpaceX has developed reusable boosters which are not left in orbit, which slowly decay and burns up (mostly) on re-entry.
All of us depend on these “life on earth” support systems in one way or another and the loss would cause a significant loss of life.
Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus
THE saddest thing about this fake outrage about the deposit return scheme is not the lack of impartiality in the BBC, the inability of the Greens to defend their own scheme, or the readiness of the Tories to rubbish any initiative: it is the inability of this country to reintroduce something that was commonplace 60 years ago. No wonder we’re going down the pan.
Ian Richmond
Springfield
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