War in Ukraine: making sense of a senseless conflict, 
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas JS Davies, OR Books, £14.99

THIS is the second edition of two US anti-war writers’ very useful account of the war in Ukraine.

They note that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Francois Hollande have since admitted that Nato leaders opposed carrying out the February 2015 Minsk II peace agreement. Nato never intended Ukraine to abide by its terms. It aimed to buy time so that it could arm and train Ukraine’s armed forces for war.

Two months after the agreement, the US, Canadian and British governments sent military trainers to provide “classes on war-fighting” to Ukrainian units fighting in Donbass. The US 7th Army Training Command built up the Nato military training base at Yavoriv for US, British and other Nato troops.

The authors also note that former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett stated in February 2023 that Nato governments, led by Britain and the US, “stopped” the April 2022 negotiations that had established the framework for a peace agreement: Russian withdrawal in exchange for Ukraine’s neutrality.

Indeed, Boris Johnson had made a surprise trip to Kiev on April 9 2022. Ukraine’s media reported that he told President Zelensky to stop talking to the Russian government and to focus on defeating Russia. He told Zelensky that Britain was “in it for the long run.” Ukrayinska Pravda quoted Zelensky’s senior advisers as saying that Johnson told Zelensky that Britain would not be party to any agreement between Ukraine and President Putin. Johnson sabotaged the chance of peace.

The big lie that Keir Starmer keeps using to try to justify continuing the war is that President Putin, if not checked in Ukraine, will go on to attack other European countries. But as Stephen Witkoff, Donald Trump’s de facto envoy to Russia, has said, it was “preposterous” to believe that Russia was poised to invade Europe or Nato member countries.

Whatever happens in Ukraine is no threat to Britain’s security. Putin is not a new Hitler. There has only ever been one Hitler — thankfully.

Crucially, Ukrainians now don’t want the war to go on. Gallup has polled Ukrainians four times since Russia’s invasion. Its latest survey of 1,000 people held between July 1 and 14 found that 69 per cent backed a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. This is a big increase since 2024, when 52 per cent favoured a negotiated peace.

President Zelensky himself has said that a ceasefire “must be the number one priority.” He also signalled that he was ready to discuss territory as part of a peace deal with Russia.

The US government now wants to stop the war. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told Nato: “The bloodshed must stop. And this war must end.”

The Biden government demanded a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders and Nato membership for Ukraine. Hegseth called the borders demand unrealistic. Indeed, Ukraine’s armed forces don’t have the strength to win back the territory Ukraine has lost, so it will have to accept that its borders have changed.

Hegseth said on February 12: “The United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.” Even Nato’s secretary-general Mark Rutte on March 13 publicly confirmed that Ukraine would not join Nato.

Starmer now says he wants to put British forces into Ukraine to maintain the peace, a proposal that would lengthen and widen the war. When Ukrainians themselves want an end to the war, what on Earth is Starmer doing when he keeps urging war? Britain has no interest in pursuing this war.

In all, this is a very well-researched account of the devious ways in which Nato member governments, especially the British, have tried to drag us ever further into an unnecessary war.