A READER has written to us to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine - and argues in favour of military intevention from NATO.

THE Russian invasion of Ukraine was totally unjustified and we simply cannot stand by and watch a whole country be reduced to rubble and ruin, its population displaced, and countless lives destroyed.

Ukraine posed no threat to Russia and the Nato Alliance is purely for mutual defence.

For evil to succeed all that is necessary is for good men to stand by and do nothing and the recent shelling of a nuclear power station by Russian forces is a threat to all of Europe, not only Nato countries.

Military intervention and a no-fly zone, undesirable as that may be, seems the only deterrent to Putin’s madness and his desire to wipe Ukraine off the map.

The only glimmer of hope in this whole sorry affair is the widespread response to aid and to accommodate thousands of refugees who have left and lost everything behind.

Sanctions may be effective in the long term but will not stop the indiscriminate shelling and gratuitous destruction taking place now.

This should not be happening in the 21st Century and a stand must be taken for the sake of humanity and a country besieged.

P Holmes, Barnard Castle.

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