Response to letter on Ukrainian war

A weekend letter to the editor regarding Russia truly boggles the imagination. How can anyone can observe what is going on in Ukraine and still suggest that the West or that Ukrainians have somehow encouraged or deserved the unparalleled violence being leveled at them from across Russia’s border? His argument seems to be based squarely on Russian distrust of Western intentions and the threat of NATO, of which Ukraine has never been a part.

Regardless of how the conflict is covered by the various media sources, the fact remains that Ukraine was attacked first and arguably was unprepared for such an attack, let alone preparing for a first-strike themselves.

Secondly the tactics being used to bring Ukraine to its knees, such as the recent bombings of grain storage facilities in the port of Odessa, violate every known international standard of war agreed upon by Russia and other nations since World War II.

Russia’s reputation as a pariah among most other nations isn’t due to American mainstream media, either; I am pretty sure that world leaders in Japan, India, Poland and across Europe would rather get their military intelligence from their own trusted sources than our public media outlets.

Lastly, Russia’s unilateral annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 should have been enough by itself to reveal Russia’s naked intentions to create a land barrier between itself and the NATO countries, even if the land is totally destroyed in the process. By the letter’s author’s way of thinking, Russia would be similarly justified in attacking any of the neighboring countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Moldova as well due to the existence of the NATO alliance, and nothing more.

— William Bucher