James Cleverley, MP
Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
United Kingdom
29th March, 2023
Dear Foreign Secretary,
Prior to 1990, it was British policy, to use nuclear weapons against Russia, if the Warsaw Pact ever crossed into West Germany. There was no discussion about this; it was policy. Nuclear weapons would be used if that red line were crossed.
Similarly, today, Russia has the same policy respecting NATO armies on its soil. If a Western army reaches Russia, President Putin will use nuclear weapons against NATO.
And he has said very clearly over decades, that Western arms in Ukraine alone would be a cause for war, if not full nuclear war. Ukraine is a red line.
I understand Mr Putin’s position, as I understood the position of the British in 1990. I am sure that, although not one single politician in the United Kingdom has had the confidence to be able to speak as I have here, I am sure that some of them want to do so.
People who believe as I do are in a position to negotiate an honourable peace with Russia and stop the war. It must be stopped; to continue it is the reverse of good.
Please consider therefore, what your support for Ukraine, which involves at a minimum sending weapons and training, is achieving. There is no way that the United Kingdom or Ukraine can win in this war, because to do so would mean nuclear warfare.
I think that the politicians of the United Kingdom are therefore not thinking straight, and they are acting like animals without reason.
It would be the job of the Church of England to tell these truths in public, but the English Church has not done so, whether through its Archbishops, or the bishops in the House of Lords. I must tell you, that I am part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, precisely because Great Britain has stumbled into such an irreligious situation that the Church is indifferent to peace, or to what is fair and right.
And this letter is specifically inspired by the treatment of the Russian Church in Ukraine at the moment; the war is affecting the monks and priests of Ukraine when they have been nothing at all, never anything else, than true followers of Christ. Their treatment is like the infamous murder of the monks of Bangor by the heathens in 616, which will be remembered as a great crime against God for ever.
The British Foreign Office and MOD are involved in an unwinnable war in which Russia is prepared to use nuclear weapons if it loses; and in which we do not stand to lose anything at all, if the Russians win. For pragmatic reasons, please begin to consider getting out of this, and leaving the Ukrainian politicians to negotiate peace with Moscow.
We are fully aware that, but for Mr Johnson’s visit to Kiev in April 2022, this would have happened already. Please see if there are any politicians in the United Kingdom’s parliament who see the truth as I do, and please encourage them to speak vocally about what they think.
Yours faithfully,
Jason Powell