LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Playing into Putin’s hands
IN last week’s Advertiser Dave Platts challenges me on Labour’s total condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Labour’s total backing for British military support to Ukraine. He ends his long letter, “Stop the war!”
Those who call “stop the war” more loudly than “win the war” are playing into Putin’s hands. A ceasefire now cedes new territory to Russia. It risks Russia regrouping its forces, deepening its occupation and legitimising its regime of torture, rape and executions. Over 20 years, Putin has never given up territory he’s taken by force.
We are not fighting. We don’t decide when it ends. Only Ukraine can make this call. Our duty in Britain and other democracies will be to support Ukraine in negotiations, just as we are now in the fighting.
John Healey MP, Wentworth & Dearne constituency, and Shadow Defence Secretary