To avoid dangerous opposition on the ground from Russian forces, it is essential for protected humanitarian support to Ukraine to come from non-Nato countries, thereby reducing the risk of escalation of military action, including possible nuclear warfare.
If the UN general assembly provides support for humanitarian forces entering Ukraine and if President Zelenskiy’s government invites such support, secure humanitarian aid, including medical assistance for pregnant women, babies, severely ill children, injured, elderly and disabled people might be achieved. Such support could include protected humanitarian corridors, protection of hospitals and other health facilities and safe medical evacuation when needed. We are not aware of any legal reason against this approach and it avoids the UN security council issue of a Russian veto.
In 2019, the World Bank reported that 138 non-Nato countries/territories have a total of 21,748,000 military personnel (minus Russia and Ukraine). These countries combined have the economic strength, expertise in humanitarian missions and the military capacity to provide secure humanitarian protection for Ukraine.
The question is whether, if requested by Ukraine, the UN would be willing to lead and, also, whether countries would be willing to work together to provide international forces to secure protected humanitarian assistance in Ukraine as a matter of urgency.
Professor David Southall, honorary medical director, Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International; Dr Olena Kostiuk, associate professor, neonatology department, Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine, Kyiv; Volodymyr Shcherbakov, physician gynaecologist, Maternity Hospital No 1, Dnipro, Ukraine; Dr Rhona MacDonald, honorary executive director, MCAI; Dr Aniko Deierl, MSc consultant, Department of Neonatology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; Dr Zoryana Ivanyuk, MSc consultant, Department of Neonatology, imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London; Dr Victor Bobyk, neonatologist, Lviv City Children’s Clinical Hospital, Ukraine; Dr Sarah Band, deputy medical director, MCAI; Professor Marina Mamenko, dean of the Pediatric Faculty of Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine
Clearly, Ukrainian students in the UK deserve the greatest support, as Vladimir Putin lays waste to their homes and homeland (“Lonely and guilty, Russians at UK universities fear for the future”, News). However, in that ancient war epic the Iliad, enemies Achilles and Priam are united by a shared experience of grief. Some students born in Russia, and in Ukraine, will be bereaved by the senseless fighting. It is important that support is openly available and accessible – and without “blame” for the young people who feel so far from home.
Woody Caan
Duxford, Cambridge
Grammar blights learning
I enjoyed Cathy Rentzenbrink’s piece and am equally dismayed by the preposterous teaching of complex (and unnecessary) grammar to primary school students (“Fronted adverbials be damned. Let’s teach the young what really matters”, Comment). I adore grammar – my interest developed when I learned Latin (a great way to be introduced to its beauty) – and I like nothing better than spotting a jussive subjunctive. But that’s just me. Educators should treat grammar as they teach (I hope) history, biology, literature or PE: give a child an engaging taste and hope that she grabs what suits her and runs with it.
Alison Carter
Lindfield, West Sussex
Digital art theft is everywhere
Your account of the dismay felt by Vanessa Bowman on finding her art was being stolen online was welcome, but described only a fraction of the digital theft of creative work (“‘They took my world’: fashion giant Shein accused of art theft”, News). The same goes for musicians and writers. My wife and I are both full-time writers. Our earnings are meagre and have shrunk over the past decade. It is extraordinarily galling to find our work repeatedly billed as “free download” on the internet. It is no better than shoplifting.
David McDowall
Richmond, London
Gender is so last century
I take issue with Charlie Porter’s use of the term “gender critical” (“Clothes maketh the gender-fluid man”, Focus). It should be obvious that the term describes those of us who deride the whole concept of gender, based as it is in regressive stereotypes of what is “masculine” or “feminine”. Those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s have spent decades fighting those assumptions, including entering then male-dominated professions. Many of us were “gender non-conforming” as children and still are.
Billy Porter is no less a man for wearing a dress to the Oscars, just as Greta Garbo was still a woman when wearing a tuxedo. That is the gender-critical position – that while our sexes are fixed, our expression as people is infinite and should not be restricted. We also do not ignore the barriers to full equality – the assumptions that women should always be “kind” being especially pernicious in the current climate. To paraphrase Rebecca West, I am a feminist because I am not a doormat.
Dr Annette Neary
Menlough, Co Galway, Ireland
Share the riches, Tristram
Tristram Hunt would like Stoke to create a national pottery museum, (“Pottery challenge thrown down to Stoke: celebrate your heritage”, News). I’m sure it would love to. However, with Londoners getting far more per head spent on them for the arts and culture than on those elsewhere, I’d make a bet it’s not going to happen.
Stoke is on a list of areas outside London that has been promised a share of a lump sum of money, according to Nadine Dorries, to help level up the arts. But this will be just a one-off payment. Outside London, councils spend on arts or bin collections, arts or children’s services, arts or any other number of essentials. If Hunt wants a national pottery museum in Stoke, let him share a chunk of the V&A’s funding with it on a yearly basis.
Sharon Maher
Wigston, Leicestershire
Pay rises all round
If “the main impact of higher gas and oil prices will be to cause a severe hit to household finances” (“Bank of England’s war footing won’t be a crowd pleaser”, Business), won’t workers have to secure the “inflation-busting wage rises over the coming months” that Bank governor Andrew Bailey feared and economist Andrew Goodwin thought unlikely to materialise, just in order to stay afloat?
David Murray
Wallington, Surrey
O’Shaughnessy the fearless
I was saddened to read about the death of foreign correspondent Hugh O’Shaughnessy (Comment), who was a friend and inspiration to me. He was a thorn in the side of Latin American dictatorships and those who supported them. I came across numerous references to Hugh in Foreign Office papers while I was researching Britain’s relations with the Pinochet dictatorship and the Argentine military regime (1976-83) in the British National Archives. The Foreign Office described him as one of “the triumvirate of Latin American correspondents who influence British opinion” (along with The Guardian’s Richard Gott and Christopher Roper).
Hugh would never be silenced. On one occasion in 1981, the Financial Times asked him to write an article to accompany an FT-sponsored conference on the benefits of investing in Argentina (then a military regime). Rather than write a puff piece, his report highlighted human rights abuses. The British ambassador, Anthony Williams, who spoke at the conference, was furious and demanded that the Foreign Office complain to the editor. But Hugh, as always, stuck to his guns.
Dr Grace Livingstone
London N6
