International People's Front

Tag: ukraine

  • What’s Really Behind Trump’s Ending of Military Support to Ukraine

    What’s Really Behind Trump’s Ending of Military Support to Ukraine

    Statement of the Resist US-Led War Movement

    This statement was originally published on March 5 2025

    The Resist US-Led War Movement asserts its grave concern over the looming war clouds and rising global military spending that overshadow US President Trump’s so-called “Ukraine Peace Plan.” What attempts to come across as a criticism of a vain and endless war in Ukraine by Trump hides instead a recalibration of US military priorities to other fronts of war while bluffing European powers into ramping up their war production and preparations for more severe conflicts to come.

    The War in Ukraine has just passed its third anniversary. Since then, over 58,000 Ukrainians and Russians have died with over 250,000 wounded, the majority of them Ukrainians. This is in addition to over 14,000 killed in the 2014-2022 Ukrainian Civil War. An estimated $155 billion in damages has been met on Ukrainian infrastructure, and approximately 2.4 million hectares of farmland has been damaged, leading to $1.5 billion lost for farmers in the country. 3.7 million are internally displaced in the country with 6.7 displaced abroad. Yet for 3 years, the US and Western leaders have refused to come to the table for peace talks, instead promising Kiev endless supplies of weapons so that it could win the war in their favor, regardless if they had to fight it down to the last Ukrainian soldier.

    Yet, all this took an unexpected turn in Washington, DC. In a shocking White House meeting covered by international press, Trump berated Ukrainian President Zelensky for relying too much on US military aid, for forcing conscripts to the front lines, for not thanking the US enough for its aid, and for “gambling with World War 3.” Zelensky was then officially asked to leave the White House, notably without signing the much-spoken of mineral deal between the US and Ukraine that Trump had touted as the key dealbreaker for continuing military aid to the country. Instead, Trump froze all military aid to Ukraine the very next day.

    The TV-style drama of this incident truly was unprecedented in the history of US foreign policy meetings, but beyond the public entertainment factor that Trump has made the hallmark of his political tactics there exist deeper truths to what this moment represents for the current state of US-led war strategy.

    It is necessary to break down the different aspects of Trump’s public accusations of Zelensky. First, it is indeed true that Ukraine has been facing a crisis in its soldiers’ will to fight over the past year, with mere inches of territory being traded back and forth for every dozen or so fighters killed. War deserters have been rounded up and imprisoned, with many forced back to the front lines. The war has devastated the country, and there seems to be no end in sight as neither side has made significant gains in relation to the amount of fighters who have been killed on either side. Ukraine spent 36.7% of its GDP on its military in 2023, yet that only amounted to $65 billion, showcasing on the one hand how devastated its economy in general has been with social spending at all-time lows for its civilian population, and on the other hand how utterly reliant it has had to have been on foreign powers up against Russia’s $109 billion at just 5.9% of GDP the same year.

    This leads into other aspects of Trump’s tirade: relying “too much” on the US and, according to Trump and Vice President Vance, not being personally “thankful” enough to the President. Both of these accusations speak to a fundamental feature of the relationship between the US and Ukraine. The US is an imperialist power, and as such prefers to wage the majority of its wars through puppet regimes in countries on the periphery of its geopolitical influence while it enjoys the “peace” of being able to plunder the rest of the world through investment schemes and wage war against its exploited and oppressed people at home. Ukraine is one of these puppet regimes and has been ever since the CIA-backed “Maidan Revolution” in 2014 that overthrew Ukraine’s independent government and installed one more friendly to Western influence and investments that immediately started a bloody 8-year civil war against Russian-speaking Ukrainian separatists in the Eastern Donbas region. NATO’s Secretary General in 2021 promised eventual NATO membership to Ukraine, therefore solidifying a US and EU puppet regime right on Russia’s doorstep to be the sacrificial lamb when Russia invaded in 2022 to protect its shrinking buffer zone between it and a military alliance that has existed to destroy it since the end of World War 2 and had looked for whatever reason possible to provoke a war against it that its own soldiers would not have to fight in. The current bloody war in Ukraine provided the golden opportunity.

    Kiev has fought both the 8-year civil war and the as-of-now 3-year Russia-Ukraine war with US and EU member-provided weapons. That is the nature of it being a puppet state. Such a state must exist in complete reliance on its imperialist master. When Trump berated Zelensky for this, he was hiding his own country’s role in encouraging further war and military aid (including millions of dollars worth during Trump’s first term) in order to weaken Russia’s growing influence without sacrificing US soldiers. The difference now is that the US President has other priorities for his other puppets. The blanket support for the Zionist assault on Palestine and West Asia with fully-loaded US weapons could not be a starker difference in public messaging, but underneath the surface this puppet relationship is completely the same. Imperialists only care for their puppets when they are useful, and they are tossed aside and bled dry for what they are still worth (like Trump’s rare earth mineral deal) when they no longer are. Zelensky and the rest of the Kiev regime are now paying the price for selling their sovereignty to US overlordship.

    To add insult to injury, Kiev’s government took Trump’s bating language at face value, and made a public statement thanking Trump for his supposed efforts to end the conflict, desperately hoping this would win back favor with the narcissistic President. This came a day after Zionist leader Netanyahu publicly did the same, calling Trump “the most pro-Israel President in American history.” Regardless of the political charades being played, the puppets will always rush to lick the boots of the puppet master.

    The final accusation of Trump towards Zelensky requires the most critical eye of all of them. Who really is “gambling with World War 3?” The US has tried to use Ukraine against Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, using its age-old strategy of turning ethnic and national groups against one another. The US and its NATO allies have spent decades turning Ukraine against its nuclear-armed neighbor while using neoliberal schemes to dismember the economies of both. If anyone has been gambling with World War 3, it is the US.

    In fact, Trump’s surprising abandonment of its puppet regime in Ukraine becomes less surprising upon looking at the other ways in which he is gambling globally with a potential World War 3. Freezing military aid to Ukraine comes a day after Trump unfroze $12 billion in aid to the Zionist military to continue violating its ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance and continue its genocidal assault while continuing its expansionist drive in Syria, Lebanon, and towards Iran. It came a day before Trump’s aggressive tariffs towards multiple countries, including China, another nuclear-armed power the US has spent years decoupling its economy from so that it can wage war without losing profits. The stopping of aid to Ukraine allows the US to pivot further into its militarization of the Asia Pacific where the US aims to contain its main competitor and adversary, China. The recent Trump’s freeze on global foreign aid, while exempting security aid to the Philippines to continue its war build up with Marcos as another puppet and the unfreezing $870 million in security assistance programs for Taiwan show the US’s strain and stretching beyond the front of US led war with Russia, and the need to pivot forces to the pacific. Once again, in the gambling, Ukraine is only a pawn, the US is the true gambler.

    Finally, Trump’s gamble is not just with the US’s rival superpowers like China and Russia. By making such a public scene of Zelensky, he gambled with European NATO members’ decisiveness to keep the war in Ukraine going at any cost. Trump’s cabinet criticized NATO members at the recent Munich Security Conference, saying that members should be paying 5% of their GDP on military (a percentage higher than what the US even spends itself). Taking the bait, European members made promises to arm both Ukraine and themselves to the teeth without US support, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling for a “coalition of the willing” to arm Ukraine until it wins against Russia and Vice President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas reigniting calls for an “Army of Europe” that would take the place of NATO. Stocks of European weapons manufacturers rose exponentially after these announcements, with Rheinmetall up 15%, Leonardo up 17.3%, Thales up 16.7%, BAE Systems up 14.3%, and Saab up 11.6%. Regardless of what agreements the US makes with Russia, the war in Ukraine will most likely not be ending anytime soon.

    Despite the dramatic row Trump’s White House meeting with Zelensky caused amongst US allies, in the end the war makers and war profiteers all got what they wanted – a reason to crank out more guns and fighter jets and new opportunities for using them (and therefore buying more). Far from bringing peace, this will only bring more unnecessary deaths. It will also bring more damage to infrastructure and farmland, and with even more of Ukraine’s public funds going to war spending, this will mean more devastated livelihood for the people. The war profiteers of Europe are willing to throw the entire population of Ukraine into the slaughterhouse of war or the hellsscape of economic ruin just to maintain their status quo of power and to keep the war industry booming.

    How should the peace movement respond to this moment? Of course, an end to the dire conflict should be welcomed, as the people deserve an end to the constant death and destruction of their country. But we must be wary of how any war ends, with foresight to how the war profiteers will use it to start another conflict as soon as they can.
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    The most important thing to remember is that our government leaders are not interested in peace, especially not Trump who is just using an opportunistic moment to re-evaluate the US’s war strategy. In the end, it is the people who make peace since the people are the ones most impacted by wars of aggression and militarism in all its forms. Our leaders will continue these public charades to try and fool us, but we must continue to raise our demands and take them to the streets where we can stand united against the US-led war machine. NATO and other US allies have never been this at odds with each other, so the peace movement must take advantage of this moment and expose the cracks. This movement will always be more united than the war makers ever can be! Finally, these imperialist machinations of the US show just how little it cares about the people living in the nations being oppressed by their puppet regimes. The peace movement must be firmly united with these movements for national liberation from semi-colonial oppression. Only then will the arbitrary moves of strongman governments like the US be challenged from the only force that can challenge them – the people themselves. This united movement is the only path towards just and lasting peace.

  • What’s not being said about the Ukraine Conflict

    What’s not being said about the Ukraine Conflict

    War, no matter how geographically distant, persistently affects you and your community. Case in point is how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is rocking the global economy. Prices of oil, wheat, and other basic commodities skyrocket as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and sanctions imposed by the West. That being said, economies and peoples around the world are enduring the ripples of the violent situation unfolding in Eastern Europe. 

    As the invasion of Ukraine escalates, the number of casualties continues to rise, millions are forced to flee as neighborhoods are reduced to rubble. At first glance, the situation might seem straightforward – Russia is launching an “unprovoked” attack against Ukraine. With the mainstream media’s oversimplified Russia-versus-the-world narrative, and often racist framing of the issue, there is a need to understand the people, their motivations, and the powers at play that led us to this point. 

    What is not being said are the roles of imperialist countries in Europe’s worst security crisis since World War II. The bigger picture would not be complete without discussing the history between Russia, Ukraine, and the US’ unsolicited interventions. 


    GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY
    Back in 1991, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine signed the Belovezh Accords (also known as the Minsk Accords) which stipulated the disbanding of the Soviet Union. Another major provision of the agreement was that signatories would form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) whose sovereignty will be respected. According to Moscow, the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) made an assurance back in ‘89 and ‘90 to not expand their membership into Warsaw Pact members. 

    However, not even a decade later, NATO had already reneged on their purported guarantee when they launched aerial bombings in Yugoslavia dubbed as Operation Allied Force. Despite the operations violating the UN Charter outlawing the use of military force, the US received nothing more than a slap to the wrist for this war crime.

    Movement for a Democratic Slovakia member Augustin Marián Húska said that “the NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 was also a signal to us, to not pursue any vision of political independence anymore. We have seen what will happen to forces that want to be independent.”

    Through gunboat diplomacy, US-NATO has been successful in making an example out of Yugoslavia and, in essence, was able to dissuade other countries in the region to vie for autonomy. Eventually, former Soviet bloc members Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovakia joined NATO. This is relevant now because this is precisely why NATO was able to deploy thousands of troops and set up military bases and missile networks so close to Russia in Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, among others. Conveniently for NATO, in 2019 the US unilaterally withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which banned the production and development of ground-based missiles. For decades, the US-NATO has been laying the groundwork to secure their economic, military, and political interests in Europe. These are all glaring displays of the US wielding its military power, a mere preface of what has to come. 

    COUPS GOING VIRAL
    In the Maidan protests of 2013-2014, then Ukrainian president and known Russia-supporter, Viktor Yanukovych was ousted through an Obama-supported coup to install a rabid anti-Russian government. A phone call was uploaded on Youtube between Victoria Nuland, US President Obama’s central agent handling Ukraine, and Jeffrey Pyatt, America’s ambassador in Ukraine. Nuland, in the phone call, was urging Pyatt to select the far-right and anti-Russian Yatsenyuk to succeed Yanukovych. 

    A second conversation was leaked a few weeks later. This time, Estonia’s Foreign Minister, Urmas Paet was sharing evidence to European Commission’s Catherine Ashton suggesting that planted snipers instigated the violence in the Maidan protests. This led to casualties from both the demonstrators and the police and eventually,  to the ousting of Yanukovych.

    The new right-wing administration, whose key members subscribe to radical nationalism and neo-Nazi ideas, wasted no time to feed the anti-Russian sentiments. They banned Russian books and mandated all print media in the country to be published in Ukrainian. This alienated several of its regions such as the Donbas and Crimea which are predominantly of Russian descent.


    REFERENDUMS AND REVOLUTIONS
    In February 2014, Ukraine was in dense political unrest and reeling from the anti-Russian policies of the new regime. Before the month ended, Moscow deployed troops in masks to clinch Crimea’s Supreme Council and secure strategic zones in the Crimean peninsula. Known as the Crimean status referendum, locals were given ballots with two options. The first would be to join the Russian Federation, while the second is to restore the 1992 Crimean constitution and remain part of Ukraine. Considering that the Crimean population is 60% ethnic Russians, support for Russia was already expected. With a turnout of 83.1%, around 97% voted in favor of integrating into Russia. 

    Expectedly, the White House, Ukraine, the European Union, NATO, and even the United Nations did not recognize the referendum deeming it “illegitimate” and “illegal”. The Russian regime of Vladimir Putin, seemingly unfazed by the heavy economic sanctions imposed by the West, continues to recognize Crimea as a federal subject of Russia.

    More importantly, we have to understand the developments in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Donbas. Even before the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, Donbas has always been predominantly Russian in terms of population, culture, and history. It was considered as Ukraine’s “industrial heartland” but has been the locus of armed struggle and political turmoil in recent years. Shortly after the annexation of Crimea, thousands of Donbas citizens marched to the streets calling for a similar referendum to join Russia. Government buildings in Donbas were seized by the armed separatist movement. Ukraine’s capital Kyiv along with their Western Allies accused Russia of supporting the secessionists to which Moscow replied that the Russians involved in the conflict were volunteers. The resistance, having won control of Donbas, declared the founding of the People’s Republic of Donetsk and Luhansk. Despite this pronouncement, Russia did not recognize their sovereignty.

    Determined to reclaim the region, from 2014-2018, Ukraine launched Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) – a counter-offensive against the resistance. It was during this time that an investigatory project led by Human Rights Watch in cooperation with the New York Times uncovered evidence that the government in Kyiv had killed and injured more than a dozen people using forbidden weaponry such as cluster bombs in residential areas.  Since 2014, lawyers from Russia and Donbas have filed thousands of cases of Ukraine’s human rights violations to the European Court of Human Rights. There have been approximately 14,000 casualties and 1.5 million displaced locals since the fighting between the Ukrainian army and the people of Donbas started eight years ago.

    A PEACE AGREEMENT IN PIECES
    In an effort to mitigate casualties and suffering, a second Minsk deal was agreed upon by Ukraine, Russia, rebel leaders, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2015. Key provisions include: a ceasefire; recognition of People’s Republics’ autonomy; prohibition of heavy weapons near Donbas; and the withdrawal of all foreign troops. 


    At the tail end of 2021, Moscow affirms their stance that NATO should stay out of Ukraine, stop their eastward spread, and end the dispatch of weapons systems near Russia. The US-NATO, despite the  2015 Minsk Accords, simply dismissed Russia’s demands. This aggravated the situation. It was an indicator that the US-NATO was already hell-bent on continuing their east expansion at the expense of the People’s Republics. 

    Tensions rose as military traffic increased along the borders. By early 2022 there had been reports of Ukraine-NATO military experts, troops, and equipment concentrating near the border of Donbas. Russian armed forces began to consolidate around the area at the same time. Such reports were absent in the OSCE’s monitoring, although locals have been reporting increased incidents of shellings. The origin of the bombs is difficult to ascertain as both sides are quick to deny while accusing each other of false flag attacks. Nonetheless, the people of Donbas are finding themselves caught in between an imminent war.

    Last February 18, Denis Pushilin, head of Donetsk People’s Republic, announced through a pre-recorded video statement that they will be conducting a mass evacuation of civilians due to incessant shellings by Ukrainian forces. Russia, in turn, has agreed to accept the Donbas refugees. By February 21, Putin officially recognized the independence of resistance-held Donbas after separatist leaders released video statements appealing for Moscow’s recognition. 

    Just before the situation reached critical mass, Moscow launched peacekeeping and special military operations in Donbas. According to Putin himself, these campaigns seek to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine. He reiterated that Russia has no plans to occupy Ukraine and that these are acts of self-defense against NATO and the Ukrainian neo-Nazis. 

    It can be remembered that in 2020,  the US and Ukraine voted against the United Nations resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism, and other practices. 

    The far-right and neo-Nazi Azov Special Operations detachment of the Ukrainian National guard has been quelling the separatist movement in Donbas since 2014. Unfortunately, their likeness to the Nazis goes beyond mere symbols. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published reports detailing how the Azov Battalion was involved in cases of mass looting, unlawful detention, rape, torture, and other war crimes.

    Renowned professor Michel Chossudovsky shed light on how the US has been supporting the Azov and the Ukrainian armed forces. Since 2015, the US has been actively supporting the Ukrainian National Guard with training exercises and military aid. The ultra-nationalist detachment still benefits from the US’ multimillion-dollar military aid packages to Ukraine even though the US Congress banned financial support to Azov in 2018. It is appalling, but unsurprising, that the United States is willing to fund neo-Nazis to frustrate liberation movements and keep Russia in check.


    Fast forward to the present, thousands of civilian casualties have been reported by Ukraine’s emergency service. Meanwhile, armed forces from both Ukraine and Russia have been documenting increasing amounts of deaths from their ranks. On top of Ukraine’s already high internally displaced person (IDP) population is the growing number of civilians fleeing for safety from the recent attacks.

    In the morning of March 4, Russian forces seized control of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia. Reports say that the occupation of the facility resulted in a fire breaking out. The world let out a collective sigh once the flames were contained and the damage was confirmed to not have reached the six active reactors. 


    THE STAKES WAGERED
    As the popular narrative forces us to take sides, we must go deeper into the interests of warring nations involved. A critical position is to take into account the current multipolar world order – the competition between and among imperialists to secure territories, natural resources, markets, and power.

    Russia is launching a full-scale attack on Ukraine. Despite Moscow claiming that these military operations reflect the best interests of Russia, Donbas, and even Ukraine, its aggression is never justified. NATO’s military infrastructure is creeping closer and closer to Russian borders. We cannot deny that there is a growing Nazi problem in Ukraine. The People’s Republics’ struggle for self-determination is no doubt legitimate and on the right. But any semblance of Kremlin’s moral ascendancy went out the window the moment they launched their military offensive against Ukraine.

    Moreover, now that Moscow has resorted to armed conflict, Russia has further isolated itself from the international community. It also does not help their case that Putin repeatedly does the same actions he condemns rivals for – the bombing of residential areas, expanding geopolitical control, deploying boots on foreign soil. 

    The US-NATO, meanwhile, did not waste time on the opportunity to further isolate Russia from the rest of the world. Aside from inflammatory statements, the US and its allies have been imposing severe economic sanctions against Russia since Crimea. This overlaps with their shameful military support to Ukraine and its Nazi-infested military even before 2022. The US-NATO recognizes that the only way they can penetrate membership into the former Soviet Bloc is by alienating Russia – whether through military or political influence.  

    If NATO successfully recruits Ukraine, the alliance would be able to install military and missile networks right next to Russia. Having that military leverage over Moscow would give the US-NATO an extra bargaining chip to limit Russia’s imperial ambitions while bolstering their own. Once a consensus against Russia solidifies, the US-NATO can easily justify both military and economic maneuvers against its imperialist rival. The years US-NATO spent grooming Ukraine seems to be paying off ever since Russia decided to pull the proverbial trigger to turn this standoff into a firefight.

    BLOOD MONEY

    Aside from NATO’s expansion, the agenda of the United States in Europe includes securing economic and corporate interests. Market stocks of weapons companies BAE systems, Lockheed & Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp.,  Rheinmetall, & Thales Group, all with links to the US-NATO sharply rose since the advent of the crisis.
     

    There is also the case of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which the US government has staunchly opposed. Once approved by regulatory bodies, it can provide double the amount of natural gas from Russia to the rest of Europe – strengthening Russia’s gas monopoly since it is already providing 43% of Europe’s gas as of 2020.  With the turn of events, Nord Stream 2 project is likely to be junked thus denying Moscow’s exclusive control over Europe’s gas resources.

    Geo-economic interests come into play in the war-torn People’s Republics. Before seceding, Donbas was responsible for around 25% of Ukraine’s exports and over 15% of its capital investments. The pre-war value of the region is undeniable. Kyiv’s longstanding commitment to reintegrate Donbas back into Ukraine is also founded on what it can gain and lose economically. 

    WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
    As members of the international community, we are not helpless. In fact, solidarity and calls for humanitarian support from peace-loving peoples of the world have started. More than taking sides, what we need now is a broader movement for peace based on justice and people’s rights.

    We must urge intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations to resolve the roots of the armed conflict arising from imperialist interests. The UN must take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation by creating real-time mechanisms to monitor human rights violations and war crimes. Sustainable Development Goals must be upheld, specifically Goal 16 which promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.


    Equally important is the call for the respect of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). All warring parties must allow the unimpeded work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In places of armed conflict, the people’s right to food must be upheld which means allowing the passage of relief actions for the affected civilian population.

    Foreign governments involved must be held accountable for the crisis. Russia must be condemned for its colonial occupation and use of significant conventional forces and conflict. US-NATO’s instigation of the crisis in Ukraine and years of warmongering in Eastern Europe also deserves the world’s denunciation.

    The international community must demand the immediate demilitarization of the borders. Let us support the humanitarian work and ensure the safety of all civilians in the region’s conflict-stricken areas. Intergovernmental bodies with civil society should continue monitoring the rights violations and war crimes and ultimately call for reparations. In a crisis born out of the rivalry of the world’s superpowers, let us not forget that peoples’ lives remain paramount.#

  • US & NATO mastermind and engineer armed conflict between Russophobe Ukrainian regime and Russia

    US & NATO mastermind and engineer armed conflict between Russophobe Ukrainian regime and Russia

    Regarding US & NATO Violations of Original Minsk Agreement and Minsk Agreement II

    It is a matter of history that the Soviet modern revisionists from Khruschov to Gorbachov and Yeltsin had the illusion that, if the Soviet Union took the road of capitalist restoration, bourgeois populism and bourgeois pacifism, the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear war would end, Russia would go back to the European homeland, join the Council of Europe and enjoy the “dividends” of peace like the US and its NATO partners.

    Thus, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as the founders of the Soviet Union decided to co-sign the original Minsk Agreement in 1991 in order to dissolve the Soviet Union and form the ephemeral Commonwealth of Independent States in exchange for the assurances of the US, NATO and the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that the human rights and democratic rights of the former Soviet republics, their peoples, various nationalities, institutions, parties, organizations and individuals would be respected and that NATO would not recruit from the former Warsaw Pact members and expand to the borders of Russia.

    So soon after the original Minsk Agreement, the US and NATO started war in Europe by destroying Yugoslavia, turning so many former Warsaw Pact member-states into NATO members, setting up missile and anti-missile bases to threaten Russia with nuclear obliteration in a matter of minutes from Eastern Europe, expanding the NATO to the borders of Russia and instigating violent incursions into Russian territory and emboldening so-called color revolutions to facilitate the spread of arms sales and capital from the US and Western Europe.

    The US and NATO masterminded, engineered and openly funded from the US embassy in Kyiv the Maidan protests in 2013 and the bloody coup d’etat against the pro-Russian government in 2014 in order to bring to power the Russian-hating Bandera-type fascists (the National Socialists of Ukraine), the political descendants of Nazis, and a new breed of Zionist fascists, all servile to the US and West European monopoly capitalism and the NATO. Thus was institutionalized a Russophobic and neo-fascist regime in Ukraine in 2014.

    Why the delay in the US and NATO in making trouble in Ukraine, from 1991 to 2013-14? Modern Ukraine was created by the Bolsheviks soon after the October Revolution and became one of three republics (together with Russia and Belarus) that founded the Soviet Union or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. More than 22 per cent of the total Ukrainian population in 2014 was of Russian nationality, who have comprised the majority in the Donbass region since pre-Soviet times and were either a majority or significant minority in major cities because Russian engineers and industrial workers had migrated to Ukraine to help in its industrialization in the time of the Soviet Union.

    Upon coming to power in 2014, the Russophobic, chauvinist and fascist rulers in Kyiv engaged in acts of discrimination (including prohibition of the Russian language in Russian communities) and violent attacks against Ukrainian citizens of Russian nationality, including military offensives against the Donbass region and vigilante attacks in a number of major cities. Since 2014, the Ukrainian fascists have been able to kill so many Russians and destroy their homes and workplaces and cause the reduction of the overall Russian population in Ukraine from more than 22 to 17 per cent (or by more than three million) by forcing them to seek refuge in Russia and other countries as refugees.

    The predominant Russian people of the Donbass region have suffered the main brunt of fascist attacks. In unilateral acts of aggression, the Kyiv chauvinists and fascists have killed more than 14,000 people (mostly civilians) in the last eight years. Out of these, more than 7.5 thousand cases have been filed against the Kyiv authorities in the European Court of Human Rights. Homes, factories, schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure have been destroyed by artillery fire and bombs. And yet the US and EU imperialists deny and obscure these facts as they harp on the line that Russia is the aggressor to Ukraine.

    Under the direction of the US and NATO, the purpose of the fascist attacks on the Russians in the Donbass region and other parts of Ukraine is not only to unleash anti-Russian chauvinism but to denigrate and insult Russia as impotent against the relentless NATO expansion. But the Russian people in the Donbass region have courageously resisted and established the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in accordance with the principle of national self-determination, despite US and fascist slander against them as “terrorists” and “fascists”.

    As a consequence of the violent attacks of the Kyiv fascists on Russian citizens of Ukraine, the overwhelming Russian population in the Crimean Peninsula decided in a referendum to take it back from Ukraine to Russia. This peninsula was a gift of Krushchov to Ukraine in 1954 in order to let it have an outlet to the Black Sea. After all, the Soviet Union was still existent. Russia’s lawful recovery of the Crimean Peninsula became the reason for the US and its G-7 partners to remove Russia from the G-8 and impose sanctions on Russia.

    Because of the heroic resistance of the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and because of the limited but highly potential support of Russia, the Ukrainian fascists and their US and NATO sponsors agreed to the Minsk II agreement of 2015 (Package of Measures for the Settlement of the Conflict) which recognized the autonomy of said people’s republics, provided for ceasefire and prohibited the Kyiv fascists from bringing heavy artillery and other weapons at a certain distance from the Donbass region.

    But under the instigation of the US and NATO, the Kyiv fascists have constantly violated the ceasefire under Minsk II agreement and attacked the Donbass region, using weapons supplied by the US and NATO. In recent months and weeks before the current special military operation to destroy military facilities in Ukraine, the Kyiv fascists shelled daily the civilian communities of Donbass and used attack drones, heavy equipment, missiles, artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. The killing of civilians, the blockade, the abuse of people, including children, women and the elderly have not stopped.

    Despite constant and repeated reminders of Russia to the US and NATO through the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE, the US and NATO have aggressively accessed Ukraine to the NATO in practical terms and in brazen violation of the original Minsk Agreement and other related agreements. The US and NATO have integrated in the its command and control system the armed forces of Ukraine and have actually used Ukrainian airfields and other military bases close to the borders of Russia and Belarus to engage in military training and exercises and install equipment for surveilling and threatening the two neighbors of Ukraine deep within their own territories.

    The US and NATO have obstinately designated Russia as their enemy despite Putin’s repeated offers of a new agreement to limit the strengthening of security by a state or international organization at the expense of the security of others. As late as December 2021, the Russian Federation handed over to its supposed Western partners a draft agreement between itself and the US on security guarantees as well as a draft agreement on security measures with NATO member states. But the US and NATO were already obsessed with a blitzkrieg to attack the Donbass region and provoke Russia. Since then or even earlier, Russian and the people’s republics have been forewarned of the aggressive plan of the US and NATO.

    In the current time of the Biden presidency, the US and the UK have been the most aggressive in providing weapons and military training to the armed forces of the Kyiv regime, issuing provocative statements against Russia and accusing it of invading the Ukraine long before the current special military operation declared by Russia. In fact, the Russian military forces stayed within their own territory before the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and Putin took the long overdue step of recognizing the independence and sovereignty of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk on February 21, 2022 and ratifying the Treaties of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with said republics on the ground that the Ukrainian fascists and US and NATO sponsors have themselves wantonly violated and nullified the Minsk agreements.

    Even as the US and all its NATO partners take a common posture of opposing Russia and supporting the fascist-ruled Ukraine, the US has its very own interests that only its British valet can best understand and agree with. It has been making the war provocations against Russia in Ukraine in order to assert and reinvigorate its hegemony over NATO and Europe, promote its own economic, political and military interests, favor its own oil and fracking interests, stop the Nord Stream 2 and prevent Germany and other West European countries from accessing gas from Russia and advance the geopolitical and hegemonic interests of the US in its inter-imperialist contradictions with Russia and China.

    Many people are apprehensive that a direct inter-imperialist war can arise between Russia and the US-NATO combine as a result of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, especially because the former has advantages over the latter in a war short of using nuclear weapons. But there are certain factors that are at work to determine calculated and measured steps by all sides. Among these factors are the contradictory interests of the US and the European Union in economic and political relations with Russia as well as with China and the still valid fear of mutually assured destruction in a nuclear war.

    Short of a nuclear war, Russia has a clear advantage over the US and even NATO in fighting the Ukrainian fascists and supporting the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the people of Russian nationality within Ukraine in terms of conventional war, economic tit-for-tat and diplomacy. In the rivalry of two imperialist powers, Russia has been relatively more sober and calculating while the US has been more frantic, provocative and aggressive in matters pertaining to Russia and Ukraine.

    Following its recognition of the sovereignty and independence of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and complying with the Treaties of Friendship and Mutual Assistance, Russia has declared a special military operation against the Ukrainian fascists, coalesced with the military forces of the aforesaid people’s republics and is now demonstrating the foolhardiness of the US-NATO and its Ukrainian fascist puppets in unleashing Russophobic attacks since 2014, drumming up war provocations and threatening to widen the scale of war to the borders and territory of Russia,

    After all its arrogance and braggadocio that it can be at the head of NATO and fight Russia in Ukraine and thereabouts, the US has been totally exposed as impotent in the face of the coalition of the Russia and the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. It has responded by merely calling on all its NATO allies to be ready for attacking Russia on all borders. At the same time, the US, NATO and the Group of 7 are expected to impose further sanctions on Russia and further exacerbate inter-imperialist contradictions. But Russia like China has already prepared counter-sanctions which can have adverse effects on the US and the European Union.

    I am most concerned that since 2014 the US and NATO have brought about in Ukraine a regime that is extremely oligarchic, chauvinist and fascist, oppressive and exploitative of the people of Ukraine, including those of Ukrainian, Russian and mixed Ukrainian-Russian nationalities. And yet this fact has been deliberately obscured by the US and NATO propaganda and overlooked by those who do not study and know the particularities of the Ukraine issue.

    The people of Russian nationality within Ukraine have suffered the main brunt of fascist oppression and deserve the solidarity and support from all the peoples of the world and from all other possible forces supportive of their just cause. For supporting the Ukrainian people of Russian and other nationalities against the Ukrainian fascists, Russia proves itself in a better position than its US imperialist rival which has been prodding Ukraine to join the NATO in violation of the original Minsk agreement and supplying it with weapons and pushing it to make war provocations against Russia.

    As a result of Russia’s special military operation in coalition with the people’s republics in the Donbass region, the offensive military capabilities of the Ukrainian fascists have been greatly degraded but these Russophobes are attacking Russian residential areas in Ukraine and misrepresenting the civilian victims in the press as Russian military troops. In the meantime, the US, NATO and the Group of 7 are reacting with vociferous statements and imposing further sanctions on Russia and further exacerbating inter-imperialist contradictions.

    Nevertheless, it will take some more time and further developments before there can be an all-out war between US-NATO and Russia or the Russia-China tandem. Let us not forget that the US and its NATO allies have their own contradictions. For instance, it is not a small matter that the European Union gets 40 per cent of its energy supply from Russia. Germany and its ruling politicians will be taken to account by the German people for agreeing with the US to shut down the Nord Stream 2. The peoples in the other NATO member-countries in Western Europe will also complain that they are made to give up a cheaper source of energy than what the US wants to provide. This energy issue is only one of several major issues that put the EU in a disadvantageous position by the bellicosity and aggressiveness of the US.

    The US will continue its strategic decline before it can plunge the world into an all-out war that can end the existence of humankind. It also remains to be seen how the European Union and people will assert their independence and attend to their own needs as the main protagonists in the new Cold War launched by US imperialism will adversely affect their respective interests in a world capitalist system that is already saturated by an excessive number of imperialist powers and whose multiple crises are rapidly worsening and driving the proletariat and people of the world to rise up in resistance.