Letters: If the West offers Russia an inch of Ukraine, it will try to take a mile

SIR – President Joe Biden said that an “invasion” of Ukraine would mean war, but an “incursion” into Ukraine will only trigger sanctions. Alan Stedall Sutton Coldfield SIR – The Russia crisis reflects the utter failure of Western governments to understand that country’s needs and fears since Peter the Great 300 years ago, and certainly post 1991. Lesley Snell Hoylake, Cheshire Cancelling Huxley SIR – A committee charged with investigating Imperial College’s past has accused Thomas Henry Huxley of “scientific racism” and proposes that his name be removed from a building and his bust from its lobby. Professor Armand M Leroi Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Alice Roberts School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham Professor Richard Dawkins Department of Zoology, University of Oxford Sir Paul Nurse The Francis Crick Institute Dr Arkhat Abzhanov Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Thomas Bell Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Michael J Crawley Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Robert G Endres Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Nicholas P Franks Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Michael P Hassell Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Mark Isalan Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Russell Lande Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Dr Vassiliki Koufopanou Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Peter J Nixon Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Dr Joseph A Tobias Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Katie Willis Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor William Wisden Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Professor Denis Wright Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London Dr Toby Andrew Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London Professor Stephen J Warren Department of Physics, Imperial College London Professor A Richard Palmer Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Professor Graham Bell Department of Biology, McGill University Professor Jerry Coyne Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago Professor Sir Walter Bodmer Department of Oncology, Oxford University Professor Joe Felsenstein Departments of Genome Sciences and Biology, University of Washington Professor Robin Weiss Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London Professor Julian Peto Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Professor Steve Jones Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Professor Nikolas Maniatis Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Dr Adam Rutherford Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Professor Dallas M Swallow Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Professor AWF Edwards Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University Professor Sophie Scott Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London Professor John Hardy Institute of Neurology, University College London Professor Dimitri Kullmann Institute of Neurology, University College London Professor Veronica van Heyningen Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London Professor Sir Mel Greaves Institute for Cancer Research Professor William D Richardson Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London Professor John Wood Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London Professor Sir John Lawton President, Institution of Environmental Sciences Masks in class SIR – Headteachers continuing to force pupils to wear masks remind me of those who continued to cane until the law put a stop to it. Lady Thomas London NW7 SIR – My chat-up line 64 years ago was: “My father’s got a cow called Wendy.” And it worked.