Letters: Ukraine’s perpetual struggle against Russia

Two Russias?

Sir: I have been turning Owen Matthews’s article (‘Putin’s rage’, 5 March) over in my mind since I read it, and I feel compelled to respond. I am married to a Ukrainian, so I have some insight into the relevant history.

After the Wall came down, my wife’s uncle Stephan visited us in England. He had spent 20 years in a Soviet gulag because his brother – my father-in-law – had fought against the Russians for a free Ukraine in the 1940s, during what they still call the Great Patriotic War. Unable to imprison him, they took his brother instead.

Recalling the perpetual struggle waged by Ukraine against its habitually abusive neighbour, I struggle with Mr Matthews’s reference to a Russia that is bigger, stronger and more durable than Putin, and am unable to decide whether it is a threat or a promise.

Your readers may like to read a translation of the Ukrainian national anthem.