• I WRITE in response to Garfield J Smith’s letter, (The Ukraine War could drag on and on, September 8).

Your correspondent ends: “Russia is not a dictatorship and it needs this war to terminate as much as we do, and soon”.

I agree that the conflict should be ended as soon as possible though the path to achieve that is currently unclear. However the statement: “Russia is not a dictatorship…” is, I believe, inaccurate.

As far as I know we have no universally agreed standard for political systems so we have to judge by comparison.

Clearly the Russian regime is not as dictatorial as North Korea but, short of the absolute monarchies of the Gulf states, it is hard to think of anywhere else more dictatorial than Russia.

It is virtually impossible to communicate with the people of Russia so our only option for peace is to bring the Russian regime to negotiations.

Sanctions have weakened the regime but have proved insufficient so we are left with no alternative, short of outright war, but to support Ukraine in its struggle against the invasion,

JOHN DAVIES
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