In another of his calls for Ukraine to surrender, the author of “A less rosy view of the war in Ukraine,” (March 13) writes: “Regardless of what anyone thinks of Putin and his policies, I’m convinced that Russia regards this as an existential war.” You have to love that “regardless of what anyone thinks of Putin” — like, we might think it’s cool the way he murders dissenters? …“and his policies” — think invading a neighboring country is just great?

The same could have been said in 1939: “Regardless of what anyone thinks of Hitler and his policies, I’m convinced that Germany regards this [its invasion of Poland] as an existential war.” Quite true: Hitler believed that Germany needed Lebensraum, “room to live” in order to survive. It also needed other countries, which it proceeded to invade. So England and France and later, America, should have left Hitler alone, right?

Vladimir Putin’s reasons for invading his smaller neighbor may well be, as the author argues, the fear of a threat from the West. Dictators are often paranoid. But there is another, more important reason: he doesn’t think Ukraine exists as a country. In 2021, he wrote an essay called “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” He denied the existence of a Ukrainian people and claimed Ukraine is an artificial creation of the Soviet era. He called the separation of the two nations a “tragedy” resulting from Western interference. Apparently, the Ukrainians do not agree. As any serious historian of Ukraine knows, they have a long national tradition. They are a sovereign nation and are struggling to remain a nation. When Russia kidnaps thousands of Ukrainian children and insists they speak only Russian, does this show fear of Western attacks, or an attempt to wipe out Ukraine as a nation and Ukrainians as a people?

Ukraine is also a democracy and most Ukrainians want to remain a democracy, not subjects of a murderous dictator. Trump has cut our aid to Ukraine. He has always admired Putin, a “strongman,” and he distrusts European democracies. Which side are you on?

David Ball

Northampton