John Kenrick’s extraordinary response last week (Letters, 21 June), including the accusation that my original letter on Ukraine (Letters, 14 June) “reflects the half-truths of the Putin propaganda machine”, simply illustrates our current malaise. I am not alone in the West in failing to see how Mr Putin can be blamed for the decision by the interim Prime Minister, Mr Yatsenyuk, and the current president, Mr Poroshenko, to use air strikes and artillery against their own civilian population in the east of the country. Cynically labelling the local population “terrorists” neither makes them so nor legitimises the act. One has to wonder, however, why this criminal behaviour has not been roundly condemned by President Obama. Before they destroy their country