Tightrope walking is the skill of maintaining balance whilst walking along a tensioned wire between two points – a skill that Ukraine’s President Zelensky must master if he is to secure a lasting peace for his country – and it is most uncomfortable and fraught with difficulty. At the time of writing this letter President Zelensky is preparing to meet President Trump at the White House backed up by a significant number of European leaders, all hoping to persuade the American President that no peace deal can be secured without Ukraine’s direct involvement and that any deal must be backed up by ‘cast-iron’ security guarantees. There is obviously a good rapport between Presidents Trump and Putin which leads many to fear that ‘the master deal maker’ might be overly swayed by the former KGB intelligence officer. The problem is that although the majority of commentators believe that militarily Ukraine is losing ground and must consider suing for peace, there are others who believe that it is actually Russia who is under the greatest strain with the danger of collapse – and a peace deal which cedes Ukrainian territory to Russia at this point might actually gift the Russian President a ‘victory’ that he might not have achieved otherwise. It’s hard to tell and very hard for President Zelensky who on the one hand can’t afford to upset his countrymen by giving away too much but on the other, can’t afford to upset the American president through his perceived lack of engagement and reluctance to strike a deal.
The moral and ethical questions are obvious. How do we broker peace without ceding territory and rewarding violence? How can we trust a violent leader and protect innocent civilians from future attack?
Traditionally, a ‘just war’ argument maintained that it was reasonable to engage in war if the actions of the enemy were clearly morally wrong and a nation had to defend itself in order to protect the innocent. It also argued that all violence should be proportionate and discriminatory between combatants and noncombatants. Unfortunately, in recent years we have seen that this hasn’t been the case, with a lot of violence being hugely disproportionate as swathes of the civilian population were caught up in the conflict. This means that much of the ‘just war’ theory has fallen short as the Ukrainian people were subjected not just to war but to terrorism.
The Christian and most right-minded people will see this as being evidence of the fact that we live in a fallen and imperfect world. It is therefore the duty of national leaders to do all that they can to restrain evil and promote security and peace. This will require us all and especially our leaders to pray and work towards a just end and sue for peace, encouraging repentance and a change of attitude, heart and mind. These are things that we cannot really do by ourselves but only with the help of God. Donald Trump may long for peace and call himself a deal maker, but the real peacemaker is the Lord Jesus Christ, the ‘prince of peace’, who calls us all to repent and seek forgiveness in his name. Let’s pray for all our world leaders, that they might successfully walk the tightrope towards peace and not fall into the danger of the abyss.
With best wishes. Stephen Thorp
‘Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good’
Ecclesiastes 9.18
This article will appear in the September edition of Parish Magazines associated with the Necton Benefice - Parish Link; Moonraker; The Pickenhams’ but is published here on Substack due to the timeliness of the situation.
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