Protect Ukraine from Russian aggression

We the undersigned, believing in democracy and self determination for all states, seeing ominous signs in history, call upon the Prime Minister and Defence Secretary of the UK, and their respective staffs, to lobby at NATO for Ukraine to be accepted for associate NATO membership post haste, as a clear warning to Russia that an attack on one European democratic nation state is treated as an attack on all, thereby giving a clear indication that we will not allow the renegade Vladimir Putin to turn the clock back to the cold war age.

The events of the past few days should alarm all peace loving people for many reasons:

1- The insistance by the Russian Federation that neighbours and other independent nations must act in Russia's interests is an attempt to re-assert the Brezhnev Doctrine, which Mr Shevednadze assured us was replaced by the Sinatra Dotrine back in 1989.

2- The people have spoken in a popular uprising in the Ukraine. Russia is now harbouring a thief of the Ukrainian people, a mass murderer and one who had defrauded and oppressed his own people. Russia must be forced to respect international law and to comply with reasonably extradition requests from neighbours.

3- A Permanent member of the UN Security Council cannot be allowed to abuse their position by intimidating neighbours. There is no recourse to debate and sanction Russia effectively through the UN owing to their own veto ( this makes a mockery of the worth of the UN but that's another story)

4- If Russian intimidation and expansion is to be allowed to continue in Ukraine (and similar events in Georgia went virtually unnoticed by the international community, so of course the aggressors are gaining in confidence) who will be next, the Baltics, Poland, Hungary? Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler and we all know the result of that- LET'S NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES OF HISTORY AGAIN.