Dear Sir,

To those paying attention to international developments, the drumbeats of war are sounding in Washington, London, Kiev and Moscow. Indeed, it is entirely possible that by the time this letter is published, the war will have already begun.

I wish to express my concern about the possibility of such a war, and hope that cooler heads will prevail. Sending more troops and weapons to the area — be they Western or Russian — is only going to further inflame tensions and increase the risk of escalation.

It is important to emphasise that opposing American/Nato militarism does not mean supporting Russian militarism. I do not accept that the Russian claim of their troop build-up on the Ukrainian border is not aggressive, as the troops are on Russian soil. However, I similarly criticise the West for their aggressive actions in Ukraine — including aiding and supporting the overthrow of a democratically elected government in 2014, with the use of far-Right and neo-Nazi paramilitaries, and subsequently arming and training this post-coup government, including those very same far-Right and neo-Nazi militias, which are now official parts of Ukraine’s security forces.

Each side — Russia, the West — is using the other’s aggression to justify their own, and each side is claiming to be solely reacting to the other and purely defensive. They feed off each other in a cycle while workers and civilians are but pawns in their imperial game of chess — mere “collateral damage”.

Further, I find it laughable to watch our imperial government, in the form of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, claim that Britain and Nato are defending and promoting “freedom”, “democracy” and “civil liberties” — all while sitting on a tank facing Russia, no less!

How can they make this claim while Nato has as members authoritarian regimes such as Poland, Hungary and Turkey? While British troops train and arm Saudi forces to commit war crimes in Yemen? While Saudi Arabia is an ally? Or Egypt for that matter, where the West stood by and watched a military coup conduct a premeditated massacre of civilians greater than that of Tiananmen Square, and is rewarded by the West as a trusted ally — indeed, it’s not unusual to see Egyptian military aircraft land in Bermuda on trips to and from the United States for training? Or while we watch the West turn a blind eye to apartheid Israel? And after Nato ushered in an era of slavery, mass rape and war crimes in Libya?

We see through the propaganda and lies of the imperialists, be they British, American or Russian.

There is no military solution to the Ukrainian crisis, and it is folly to think otherwise. I hope that war can be avoided, and that the warmongers on all sides can be restrained and imperialist plots and adventurism stopped.

JONATHAN STARLING

Hamilton Parish