I’m appalled at comments from people moaning about the entrance price for York Minster. They should stop to think about the cost of upkeep.

My husband and I visit York and the Minster is always top of our list. It is a wonderful place.

We are pensioners. But to spend all day for £18 to me is a treat and well worth it.

Sylvia Simpson, Howard Court, North Shields

 

War in Ukraine

Two costly and devastating years have passed since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine - which he once denied was Russia’s intention, just as he claims he’s not eyeing up Baltic states or former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

Rishi Sunak has recently repeated a pledge that the UK would support Ukraine for ‘however long, and whatever, it takes’. Boris Johnson made a similar undertaking before him with Sir Keir Starmer also following that line.

Such assurances seem reckless and worryingly open-ended to me as it could take a very long time yet for a satisfactory conclusion to this major 21st Century European war.

The conflict has reached stalemate with hints of a turning tide, partly due to serious hold-ups in US funding. It’s interesting to speculate what would the situation be now if in February/March 2022 Ukraine had been made an EU member and fast-tracked into NATO membership.

Unfortunately, as the war grinds on and slips down the news agenda and western support becomes variable, Putin and his cohorts are emboldened in the face of apparent or actual weakness or division.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that only resolute and sustained military might will give Putin pause for thought. And that is expensive in the extreme.

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York