• I READ with interest Oliver Lewis’s letter on the war in Ukraine, (Democratic order is at stake, March 9).

Lest readers assume that his is the only opinion held by Holborn & St Pancras Labour Party, of which I am a member, I’d like to set out an alternative viewpoint of context.

The west has ignored the warning signs about conflict with Russia. At the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union promises were made to Mikhail Gorbachev that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO, yet this is precisely what has happened by stealth over 30 years.

In 2014 the democratically elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup with western encouragement, and civil war broke out in eastern Ukraine. Peace deals negotiated in Minsk, which would have created two autonomous Russian-speaking regions, were sabotaged by the west.

When Russia finally did invade Ukraine the west was quick to supply Ukraine with weapons and support. When it looked like a peace deal was possible in the spring of 2022 Boris Johnson hurried off, some say was dispatched, to Ukraine to prevent it.

The Russian-German Nordstream gas pipeline was blown up – almost certainly by the US – the real reason why energy prices have skyrocketed.

Many of the civil rights abuses that we condemn in Russia are carried out by Ukraine as well. In Ukraine trade unions are banned and pacifists are jailed.

At the recent meeting of Holborn & St Pancras Labour’s general committee the invited speaker expressed the view that a future Republican administration in the US would be a lot less willing to support the war in Ukraine.

Indeed other experts believe that Joe Biden is starting to go cool on support for Ukraine, regarding it as a distraction from his squaring-up to China, and believes that the recapture of all occupied territory is neither achievable nor desirable.

A ceasefire could be in place tomorrow but it wouldn’t suit the west’s desire to humiliate Russia, and it would dent the profits of the arms manufacturers.

As for support for NATO, it was set up as a mutual defence organisation for its members, yet it has instigated and involved itself in numerous wars over the years which had nothing to do with mutual defence.

This is what our mainstream media don’t want you to hear.

SIMON PEARSON, NW5