Sir, – Cian ÓhEigheartaigh (Letters, September 16th) cautions against the risk of escalation by allowing Ukraine use western supplied long-range weapons inside Russian Federation territory.
The same edition of The Irish Times carried a report headlined: “Russian bomb injures at least 30 civilians in attack on Kharkiv” (News, September 16th). Casualties in the strike on a high-rise residential building included three children.
UN data published in April estimated that about 600 Ukrainian children have been killed in Russian attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion, and that “the true number of children’s lives lost is likely to be considerably higher”.
A European Parliament briefing in March 2024 said that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children had been deported into Russia, an alleged war crime for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
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Surely Ukraine has the right to attack military bases inside Russia to defend its children and other citizens against an aggressor who deliberately targets schools, hospitals and apartment buildings. – Yours, etc,
RONNIE SIMPSON,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – The British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden recently held talks in Washington on whether to allow Ukraine to fire cruise missiles into Russia.
Ukraine sees these missiles as part of a wider war plan to target airbases, missile launch sites and other locations used by Russia to bomb Ukraine.
I can understand Mr Biden’s reticence about such an arrangement. If he were to give his imprimatur to Ukraine’s use of these missiles, then one would be fearful that a nuclear weapon would be used on Ukrainian territory or that Russia might go as far as to use their nuclear arsenal on a European capital.
Mr Biden would also have a sense of disquiet apropos to a possible Russian interference in the US November elections should he grant permission for these missiles to be used by Ukraine.
That old idiom of don’t poke the bear (at least for the time being) might be a sagacious move on Mr Biden’s part – Yours , etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.