Fintan O’Toole misunderstands Spain’s history and the grim realities of the Russo-Ukrainian war (“For Sinn Féin, Tiocfaidh ár lá is being replaced by Turn the Other Cheek”, Opinion, February 17th).
It was the internationalisation of Spain’s civil war that turned a tragedy into a catastrophe. The problem with the Anglo-French policy of non-intervention was that it failed and led to a proxy war in Spain between Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Soviet Russia was republican Spain’s main international backer; some 2,000 Soviet military “volunteers” fought the fascists, more than 150 of whom were killed. Higher still were the casualty rates of the 40,000-strong communist-led International Brigades. But, diplomatically, Moscow strove for implementation of the non-intervention agreement – because that was in Spain’s best interest. By the time foreign intervention in the civil war ended, it was too late. Franco’s victory was assured and four decades of dictatorship followed.
It is the internationalisation of Russia’s war against Ukraine that has been a disaster. Absent western intervention in the conflict, the war could have ended within weeks of Vladimir Putin’s invasion – and on terms much more favourable to Kyiv than those it is being forced to accept four years later.
O’Toole mocks Sinn Féin for “turning the other cheek” and voting against the latest package of European aid to Ukraine, most of which will be spent on arms. Actually, Europe’s politicians should heed SF’s example by ending their proxy war with Russia and devoting themselves to diplomacy and the supply of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Sending more arms may prolong the conflict, but it won’t change the brute fact of Putin’s coming victory. For sure, it will have been a hugely costly and tarnished victory, but the longer the war goes on the greater will be Ukraine’s human and material losses.
O’Toole and the supporters of continuing western intervention in the Ukraine war are doing Ukrainians a disservice. Their actions only add to Ukraine’s agony and put in jeopardy its future as an independent, sovereign state.