[https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/07/27/war-in-ukraine-a-moment-of-moral-choice/](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/07/27/war-in-ukraine-a-moment-of-moral-choice/)
# War in Ukraine: a moment of moral choice
## Now is the time for peace negotiations
Wed Jul 27 2022 – 00:15
Sir, – I was disappointed and dismayed that your editorial “The Irish Times view on the war in Ukraine: escalating to stand still” (July 20th), commenting on the war in Ukraine, did not encourage any ceasefire negotiations that might lead towards a peace settlement between the Russians, the Ukrainian forces and the separatists.
Until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations, the long haul of terrible war will go on. How can there be any winner?
The Ukrainian people have suffered tens of thousands of casualties and are now losing up to a thousand soldiers a day, killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Your editorial states that in the war it is estimated that 25,000 to 27,000 Russians have been killed in the fighting.
For people grieved by the suffering and longing to hear some mention of peace or negotiation it was so welcome to read the deeply concerned and thought-out article by the historian Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at UCC, saying that now is the time for peace negotiation (“Ukraine must grasp peace from jaws of unwinnable war”, Opinion & Analysis, July 13th).
This is surely a moment of moral choice. Concerned people of the world anxious to live together in peace and sustainability must demand that this war be brought to an end so that lives are saved, and there is a lessening of the suffering, and the reconstruction of lives and livelihoods can begin.
Or the choice is to let the conflict go on, and the killing go on, with thousands more soldiers, young men and men in their prime, dying on the front line, and civilians including children threatened with death, fear and destruction of their homes, schools, hospitals and basic services.
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Continuing the war of course makes the climate change crisis worse which is resulting in millions of people in Africa, and elsewhere, being put in further danger of starvation, and the endangering of the food security of so many in different parts of the world.
In our own conflicts, whose centenaries we have been commemorating, each time the fighting was ended by a ceasefire being called, followed by negotiation. This was so in the 1916 Rising, in the War of Independence, and in our tragic Civil War.
In 1916, in the first World War, the great German composer Gustav Holst collaborated with the English poet Clifford Bax to create the great anti-war peace anthem “Turn back o man, and quit thy foolish ways’’.
Their words speak to us across the century and surely are now even more relevant.
>“Turn Back O Man, and quit thy foolish ways.
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>Old now is earth, and none may count her days,
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>Yet thou, its child, whose head is crowned with flame
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>Still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim,
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>Turn back, O Man, and quit thy foolish ways.
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>Earth might be fair, and people glad and wise.
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>Age after age their tragic empires rise,
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>Built while they dream, and in that dreaming weep.
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>Would they but wake from out their haunted sleep,
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>Earth could be fair, and people glad and wise.
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>Earth shall be fair, and all its people one,
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>Nor till that hour shall God’s whole will be done!
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>Now, even now, once more from earth to sky
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>Peals forth in joy the old, undaunted cry,
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>Earth shall be fair, and all its people one.”
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– Yours, etc,
SABINA COYNE HIGGINS,
Dublin 8.
16 comments
Jesus…does she not follow the rhetoric?
Ukraine isn’t going to give up territories.
Obviously everyone wants a peaceful solution but if Russia stops fighting the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends
To negotiate requires the parties to act in good faith and have some hope of abiding by any agreement- that’s not the case here. Putin negotiated to open the grain ports and shelled them the same day. No agreement with him is worth anything, so no, there can be no negotiation until either he’s gone or the Russian economy is sufficiently broken to drag them to the table. Also there can be no peace that allows the annexation of parts of Ukraine – rewarding the aggressor only emboldens them – so a well meaning and well intentioned piece but naive in the face of the facts
There should be no negotiations, Russia wont give up with how deep they are into it and Ukraine wont let them have half the country just to be invaded again for the other half down the line.
Let Russia continue on I say, they can’t win this war it’s basically impossible if the people of Ukraine keep resisting and there’s meaningful support from the west. And all the while it buys time for neighbouring countries to build up their defences to discourage Russia from trying this shit again.
I long for the day where this thing ends and Russia are completely and utterly embarrassed by their failure and hopefully it teaches them a lesson.
Interesting that she’s calling for exactly what Putin is calling for
The battered wife merely needs to reason with her drunk husband after he gets home from the pub
She obviously lives a nice sheltered life.
It’s not a war, it’s an invasion. Giving up an inch of land now for peace would just lead to another invasion down the line. I’m shocked that this isn’t unbelievably apparent. Well worded but pretty ignorant letter tbh
The Ukrainian’s call this ‘Westsplaning’, and for good reason. It’s easy to call for peace and negotiations when you’re not the one in an existential fight to not just survive but also not to be raped and murdered in to oblivion. Even worse again when you’re calling for peace because it might disrupt your comfortable life of cheap Russian Gas consumption, and low cost Ukrainian foodstuffs.
People do realise that the longer war goes on the more citizens will die. Ukraine needs to push Russia back to a point where negotiations are viable.
If you think that point is beyond Crimea though I hope you realise 100ks more will probably die
How do papers verify who sent in the letter? I could stick down that name and send in any old waffle
This isn’t a war in Ukraine, it’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If someone can believe Russia isnt a rouge state and can be trusted, they need a reality check.
They are not Separatists, but Russian Proxy groups…
And what is the peace agreement she would propose? Zelenskyy is the compromise candidate and the ‘dove’ side of Ukrainian politics. He has said many times before the conflict that Ukraine would not join NATO or EU to avoid the war. He has agreed to the borders pre Feburary 22 (not pushing for the borders of covering Ukraine before 2014). He offered diplomacy before the war. Now though, If Ukraine gives any more (like accept now Russian control Kherson/ Zaporizhia regions — along with the millions kidnapped by Russia), Ukraine is very likely to descend into a Civil War, far more bloody (just like our own).
Diplomacy and Peace deals are not magic spells. You can’t just ask people to do the diplomacy dance and everything will be fine. There would have to be a real sustainable peace on offer which both parties can abide by and accept (which the Russians will never do as it would be a defeat for them). You need two genuine actors (not one) and you need real compromise on both sides. Ukraine cannot accept any more compromises on its sovereignty. To say it can, is not based in reality- and opens the possibility of far more destructive conflict.
The only way for Peace in Ukraine is for Russia to leave its lands.
If Michael D. had dispatched that contradiction of Irish Government foreign policy, I would argue that the proper response would be to impeach him before the Oireachtas in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. It seems to me to be poor practice for a member of his household to do it, especially one whose views may easily be interpreted as a proxy for his.
Any peace negotiated now will be a temporary one, allowing Russia to reorganise its forces for another invasion. Russia has been transparent that this war is an invasion to re-establish some of the old soviet territory (Putin has stated publicly the loss of the old Iron Curtain territories was a regrettable loss for Russia).
To cede territory to Russia through a peace negotiation would only embolden Putin’s appetite, and we’d be back in the same position in 5 years from now or less.
Genuinely mortified that she’s thick enough to think leaving the people of Mariupol under those scum is an option.