Mary Dejevsky (“Year of living dangerously”, 3 January) may or may not be right that a settlement between Russia and the EU will be hammered out in 2015. But she looks at Ukraine through Russian spectacles. In 2014, Ukraine did not descend “into near civil war”, but was the victim of Russian aggression. Ukraine has been a “perpetual borderland” only in Russian eyes. Since 1991, Ukraine has been an independent sovereign state, recognised by the rest of the world, including in treaties with Russia. The people of Ukraine should decide their own future, including whether Ukraine should be neutral or part of an alliance. After years in which there was no popular majority in Ukraine for Nato membership, Russia’s bullying has – ironically – n