The imperialists in Moscow have finally dropped their last facade in their war with Ukraine. From 24 February 2022 until March 2024, they claimed that Russia was only conducting an ”special military operation” in Ukraine. Anybody who talked about a war with Ukraine was censured and could face detention. However now the representatives of the Kremlin themselves are talking about a actual war with Ukraine, ending the facade of a ”special military operation”.
The situation as of March 2024
Vladimir Putin seems to have accepted reality, that Russia is at war with Ukraine. Until now the Russian propaganda was not allowed to use the word; ”war”, because the Kremlin did not wanted its people to know that they were fighting in Ukraine. However after 150.000 death soldiers they could not longer keep that facade alive. Russian men were dying and not in small numbers. Russia has lost more soldiers in the war with Ukraine, then with their war in Afghanistan (1979-1988). Ukraine has kept the imperialists from taking more land, but despite massive NATO support is unable to take back what Russia captured in early 2022.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised his people, that Ukraine would recapture all lost territories, including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. However as of March 2024, Ukraine seems unable to mount a offensive against the Russian imperialists. Mainly this because they are out of ammunition and despite promises of support, the western world is unable to provide. The western stockpiles are depleted, which leaves Ukraine unable to mount a effective attack. Meanwhile the Russians just have to wait until their North Korean factories have produced enough guns for a counter attack.
Can Russia win the war?
The Russian ”Empire” has the means to win the conflict. Their army is bigger and they have a better military industrial complex compared to Ukraine. Kyiv was forced to build up a defence industry out of nothing. There remains deep systemic corruption and abuses inside the Ukrainian economy. Capitalist privatisation and deregulation have only increased corruption as capitalists are free to exploit anything they get their hands on. This corruption is the result of a society dominated by greed capitalists (oligarchs) who are the actual rulers of Ukraine. The Ukrainian state has been reduced to a weak hulk before the invasion and was therefore unprepared for the attack.
Putin’s empire may have the better means to win, but they too are plagued with corruption and mismanagement. As with Ukraine, Russia embraced free market fundamentalism in the 1990’s. Despite the restoration of the Kremlin as the all powerful central government, the army remained ineffective. Russian soldiers are mostly made up of conscripts who are forced to fight. In the 2022 invasion, soldiers who made up the invasion force came from the poorer rural parts of Russia, not from the rich cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
Ukraine has the luck that Russia has an ineffective army, build on mistrust between soldiers and officers. The fact that Russia lost 150.000 soldiers and over 2.000 tanks and armed vehicles, shows us that between reality on the battlefield and parades on Red Square is a huge difference. The biggest fear of the Kremlin is a popular revolt like the revolution of February and November 1917. Because ordinary Russians do not wish to fight and with more death husbands, sons, uncles and friends, the reality of a brutal imperialist war caused by the Kremlin is now becoming more clear.
Ukraine and the workers movement
Early 2022, many men were willing to take up arms. But these men are either death or wounded. The group that is now fighting is losing moral due to the fact that Ukraine is not winning. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying each week that Ukraine will win, but soldiers understand that this is propaganda talking. The 2023 summer offensive failed, they could not breach the Russian defence lines. With this reality sinking in, recruitment becomes more difficult as men do not wish to join the Ukrainian Army. Although hope for a military victory remain, the Ukrainians start to understand that this war could be long and difficult for them.
Because of the war, the workers movement in both Russia and Ukraine is fully subjugated to the pro-capitalist leadership in Kyiv and Moscow. In Russia, the imperialists have silenced any opposition and Kyiv has presented itself as the leader of the resistance against Russian imperialism. However if the workers movement remains passive, then their suffering will only remain. This is why revolutionary socialists call for the formation of a revolutionary political alternative, to the governments of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Independent trade unions will have to be set up in opposition to the state controlled unions in both nations. Some small strikes have occurred in Ukraine, this shows us that there is the will to fight the injustice caused by the capitalist system. This is why International Socialist Alternative (ISA) believes it is important to develop a strong, organised and politically conscious working class movement in Ukraine, that can take control of the situation.
Is there a way out for the working class?
It remains important for socialists in Russia to build the anti-war movement. This is indeed difficult as the Kremlin does not tolerant opposition to their imperialist war. We say that opposition to the war must be linked to opposing and overthrowing the Putin regime and the capitalist system he supports. Putin fear a workers uprising, because his government is not that strong. If the Russian army is unable to conquer Ukraine, it will sure not be able to defend the Kremlin from a massive workers and peasants uprising on the scale of 1917.
We show solidarity with the Ukrainian working class, but not in a way to strengthen western imperialism or the nationalist government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Unlike some leftists we do not side with the idea that Ukraine must be armed by NATO. International Socialist Alternative stands for real links with workers’ organisations in Ukraine as they fight the labour laws, wage cuts and privatisation and to assist them directly with real material and humanitarian aid, helping the Ukrainian working class to create their own alternative organisations, independent of capitalist politicians like Zelenskyy.
In late February 2024, it will be two years after the Russians started their imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Despite that the whole western world supplied Ukraine with weapons, the reality is now clear that the former Soviet republic is not in a position to start an offensive against the Empire of Vladimir Putin. The Russian imperialists have dug themselves in and the summer attack of Ukraine failed to capture the occupied southern parts. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Ukrainians that their nation would win with NATO support, that is still the propaganda coming from Kyiv. Reality is that after two years the war has entered a stalemate, with Ukraine not able to recapture what it lost to Russian imperialism.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy losing military support?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the Ukrainian president since 2019. A pro-western leader and a populist, he failed to change Ukraine for working class people after winning the elections. It is much easier to play a president in a television series, then to be one in real life. Zelenskyy is a typical capitalist president, serving then needs of the deeply corrupt Ukrainian oligarchy. This is why in early 2022, he only had an approval rating of 30%. It is very possible he would have lost an election to a pro-Russian conservative candidate.
However then came 24 February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It boosted the popularity of Zelenskyy, who dropped the typical capitalist business suit and embraced a military outfit, which all Ukrainian ministers now use. He rallied the country to stand behind a government and state, which never cared for democratic rights. The Ukrainian state has always worked for a small capitalist minority as is any government or state on this planet. Ukraine did turn more western after 2014, but on the whole scale deep inequality remains with poverty around 24,1% of the population in 2022, just before the invasion.
The Ukrainian military had improved since 2014. They dumped their Soviet style uniforms and mentality. This maybe the only reason why the country was not overrun in 2022. Their use of western military methods turned out to be a save line as Russia’s military is still based on the mentality of the old Stalinist USSR, with deep mistrust between officers and conscript soldiers. Ukraine was able to hold on and their post-2014 military reforms did help them. It also motivated soldiers to take independent actions as opposed to Russian soldiers, who do not act unless direct orders are given from the top down.
Two years after the invasion, the Ukrainian military is becoming more critical of Zelenskyy. Valerii Zaluzhnyi is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since July 2021. He has stated that Zelenskyy is painting a too positive picture of the war and the chances of victory for Ukraine. Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi are said to be in conflict and it is very possible that Kyiv will replace Zaluzhnyi. Should Zelenskyy indeed choose to sack the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, it will weaken his position. Ukrainians will know that the government is taking action against those military officials who dare to challenge the line that Ukraine is winning the war.
Ukraine cannot win
Despite what the Ukrainian propaganda may claim, the country cannot win this war. Reality is that their old Soviet military stockpile is depleted. They now rely fully on western military support from NATO and EU countries. Russia has around 300.000 occupation troops in Ukraine and although 800.000 Ukrainian men are mobilised, these men are conscripts and not fully trained. Meanwhile the imperialists from Moscow had the time to dig in and to build their defences in the occupied eastern parts. North Korea has agreed on becoming the ammunition supplier of Russia, which gives the Kremlin more space to build tanks and other high tech materials while Kim Jong Un builds the bullets.
The imperialists also have learned to use low tech weapons like drones. Early in the conflict it was Ukraine who was able to win battles due to the use of drones. But Moscow has learned and now drones are used by the imperialists as well, with western technology inside them. This shows us that the economic sanctions against the Russian ”Empire” have failed. Moscow is still getting its hands on western technology by using different routes, mainly from Central Asia and China.
NATO is now arming Ukraine, but cannot do this forever as billions are required for which western tax payers must pay. Western governments have just agreed for another round of billions in military support for Ukraine. Revolutionary socialists oppose this, not because we want Russia to win but because we know that under the current capitalist system, no victory is possible. What is needed is a revolution, a genuine socialist revolution in both Kyiv and Moscow. Because with right-wing nationalism, no victory for possible for either side. Workers have already been sacrificed and should not die for either the imperialist needs of NATO or Russia.
Western style capitalism is not the alternative in Ukraine
It is understandable that Ukrainians stand with NATO and the western world. They think that the western world stand for democracy, freedom and human rights. This is what the nine conglomerates keep spreading on their news networks. Nine capitalist media conglomerates control what 90% of western people see on television. Their names: CBS Corporation, Disney, Vivendi SA, Viacom, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, General Electric and Bertelsmann. These nine media conglomerates make sure that no media outlet turns against the dogma’s of western imperialism.
Many in Europe and the USA think that supporting Ukraine with guns will help them defeat Russia. What we then ask is, why no weapons are given to the people of Myanmar, why the people of Afghanistan and Iraq were not armed to fight the American imperialists? Why were no guns delieverd to the Kurds, when they fought Islamic State in Syria and Iraq? Because western guns and money are only given when you submit your group/country to the wishes of western imperialism. Defeating Russia is part of the new Cold War between western imperialism and eastern imperialism. China is the leader of eastern imperialism with the USA as the leader of western imperialism.
Ukraine is right in the middle of this new Cold War. For them the struggle against Russian imperialism is seen as a fight for national liberation, but they cannot win by siding with the western imperialist camp. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine would win since February 2022. Due to mistakes and corruption of the Russian Armed Forces, Ukraine did win back some occupied parts. But now there is a stalemate and Zelenskyy’s propaganda is facing the stone wall of battlefield reality. Ukrainians will realise that their country is not winning, despite the massive use of western weaponry.
For Ukrainian workers the only way out of poverty and occupation is through revolutionary socialism, not by siding with Volodymyr Zelenskyy or the western imperialist camp. The western world never cared for Ukraine, until president Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019) started to say things the western world liked and the eastern world opposed. Poroshenko, a member of the Ukrainian oligarchy, was loved (by the establishment) for his pro-western views, yet ordinary Ukrainians gained nothing with him. He was a capitalist president, working for the ruling class. This is why the population voted for the actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Poroshenko only got 24% of the votes.
Lies and propaganda
Revolutionary socialists say that there cannot be any trust in the Ukrainian capitalist establishment. Despite their nationalist propaganda and claims of victory, they will not win this war. Russia has not even mobilised its full army. Putin still calls his invasion a ”Special Military Operation”. This is done to hide the fact that over 120.000 Russian soldiers have died since February 2022, Ukraine lost around 70.000 soldiers. It remains difficult to say how many died as both sides are not telling you the real numbers. Both claim they have killed a lot of enemy troops while diminishing their own loses.
Russia can keep the stalemate going. Vladimir Putin is selling cheap crude oil to China and Asia, making huge profits. Also by using total control over the media, Russians are kept in the dark about the many young men that are death. Families of death soldiers are not allowed to report on the death of their sons, so the public does not know that more men have died in this war, then in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The reactionary Russian media claims that they are fighting the ”inferior LGBT+ culture” of the western world. Ukraine is called an ”Gay Nazi State” and Russia; the ”beacon of tradtional family culture”.
For workers from both countries, revolution is the only perspective out of war and poverty. This means that they need to brake with capitalism and build a socialist alternative. For this, revolutionary workers parties are needed that can lead the masses into revolution. The biggest problem is that the established left-wing is not revolutionary. Social democracy betrayed workers and Stalinism has joined the Russian camp as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proofs. The left-wing is not revolutionary, which is the biggest handicap for the workers movement.
In Ukraine, there is not even an established left-wing or any party that can be called centre-leftist. The political spectrum in the country has always been either pro-western (liberal) or pro-Russian (conservative). In reality, the left-wing has been demonised by the media of the Ukrainian state and oligarchy, by comparing Marxism to Stalinism. The fact that the Communist Party of Ukraine (banned in 2015) had a pro-Russian line, strengthen this perspective. A whole generation of Ukrainians is raised with lies about socialism as the only alternative out of the injustice that capitalism created.
Socialism means democratic control from below. Stalinism and social-democracy have nothing in common with that idea. Stalinist communists in Ukraine fully supported the two stage theory, this why they sided with pro-Kremlin conservatives. The Communist Party of Ukraine even joined capitalist Ukrainian governments in 1994 and 2006. Another reality remains that political parties in Ukraine are often vehicles for charismatic individuals with money, they do not function as typical political parties in western countries with an left or right ideology.
Finally, the Ukrainian workers movement at this stage is fully siding with the Kyiv government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is the same government that is attacking workers by demanding longer work hours and lower pay. Zelenskyy did not vetoed bills that now can result in arbitrary dismissals, overtime work on spurious grounds, ignoring collective agreements in terms of wage payment. This show us that the pro-NATO government is not a government of the working class, but just another corrupt pro-capitalist regime. Workers will need to brake with Zelenskyy and the whole rotten establishment.
Against nationalism and imperialism
Ukraine and Russia are in a propaganda war. Although most western people know that Russia is misleading its own people, Ukraine is playing the same card. We are never told about the massive deaths of Ukrainian troops. We do not see destroyed Ukrainian tanks and killed soldiers. Ukraine has shown us enough pictures of destroyed Russian tanks, ships and guns. But at the same time we must not forget that over 70.000 Ukrainian soldiers are death and the summer offensive in 2023 failed. No pictures of this failed offensive are shown and since Russian media outlets are banned in the western world, we do not see what is filmed on the Russian side.
Nationalism is a powerful weapon and both sides use it. Russia and Ukraine are playing with nationalist icons and demonising their opponents. Russia plays on the Great Patriotic War, the use of Soviet symbolism and Tsarist claims about southern Ukraine. Kyiv is playing on anti-communist nationalism by claiming that Russia wishes to restore the ”Communist Empire”. Ukraine is also using far-right symbols and icons such as the fascist red-black flag of the Ukrainian Insurrection Army of Stepan Bandera. This far-right killer of 200.000 Jews and Polish workers is hailed as a hero by the Ukrainian state.
In this war, far-right nationalism is tolerated and actively used. Russian fascists and nationalists mix symbols of Tzarist Russia and Stalinist Russia into one toxic mixture. Nowhere is this perfectly shown as in the grotesque Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces. Build in 2020, this Christian orthodox cathedral has icons of Stalinism, Tzarism and Orthodoxy mixed together. The cathedral glorifies the Russian army and its battles. Strangely only the Red Army of 1941-1945 is shown as Russian, not the original Red Army from 1917-1922, which fought against all what this cathedral and the Kremlin stand for!
Revolutionary socialists fully reject the abuse of Soviet symbols by the Kremlin and the Russian ”Empire”. We also call out the rehabilitation of the Ukrainian fascists and their symbols by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The fascist red-black flag is not something to be proud of. Yet the Ukrainian Armed Forces use it as if the Ukrainian Insurrection Army was fighting for a free democratic Ukraine during WW2, when it allied itself to Nazi Germany. Bandera wanted a fascist Ukraine with no room for Jews, leftists, Russians or anything not ethnic Ukrainian. This is why his far-right thugs killed 200.000 and actively supported the Nazi’s as members of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police of the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine.
The war in eastern Ukraine cannot be solved on the bases of nationalism. This is why we say that only a socialist revolution has the potential to end the conflict. Revolutionary socialists know that we are a minority, marginalised in Ukraine and oppressed in Russia. Yet our alternatives will proof to be the only way forward as more years will past and the nationalist rhetoric proof fruitless, in winning the war. The workers movement in both countries will have to be organised and willing to fight for a socialist alternative, that free’s them from the injustice of war, exploitation and opression, which are part of the daily lives of working class people.
Рабочие Украины и России, вам нечего терять, кроме своих цепей, вам есть что завоевать!
Трудящі України і Росії, вам нема чого втрачати, крім їхніх ланцюгів, ви маєте завоювати світ!
The Royal Netherlands Air Force has decided to donate over 24 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. The Netherlands is joining NATO countries who donate tanks and planes to the Kyiv government in their fight against the Russian imperialist aggression. Despite that many Dutch support Ukraine, revolutionary socialists do not support the fact that western tax payers are funding the Ukrainian army. Also we must not forget that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has subjugated his country to the wishes to western imperialism. The reality is that Ukraine cannot win this war by military means. Only a political revolution in both Kyiv and Moscow has any chance of ending this bloody conflict.
Revolutionary socialists understand that Ukraine want arms. We understand that many Ukrainians think that NATO is about freedom and Russia is about oppression. Russian imperialism controlled Ukraine for a long time and has stolen Ukrainian territories since 2014. But we warn against the illusion that the western world is good and the eastern world is bad. Western imperialism never cared about Ukraine before 2014. The country was seen as a typical ex-Soviet republic, poor and backward. It was only after a pro-Russian president was kicked out that the west started to support Ukraine.
Western imperialism was happy with the collapse of the Soviet-Union in December 1991. Ukraine was one of the ex-Soviet republics who dissolved the USSR, together with the Russian Federation. Between 1991 and 2014, Ukraine often had a good relationship with Moscow. Even the (failed) Orange Revolution did not changed much. The failure of the pro-European liberal camp in building a functional society led to the rise of Viktor Yanukovych, a conservative pro-Russian leader. Euro-Maidan led to the rise of Russian separatism and the hostile invasion of Crimea by Russia.
Today is said that Ukraine will never be pro-Russian again. This might be true but Ukraine is not a functioning democracy. It is a deeply flawed society with a government that is willing to use authoritarian methods. Anything related to communism is banned by law while far-right Ukrainian organisations and their symbols are fully legal. Ukraine has a problem with glorifying those who murdered around 200.000 Polish people. Despite this, the far-right has little support as elections have proven. Ukrainian nationalism is however as poison as Russian chauvinism.
Russia is a full nationalist dictatorship by August 2023. The facade of a democratic Russia has been destroyed by the Kremlin and the Federal Security Bureau (FSB). Russians know this and therefore do not dare to speak out. Because the regime has arrested and jailed over 19.673 people who oppose the war. Ukrainians often wonder why Russians don’t dare to fight back. The problem is that Russia does not tolerate criticism of the government. Since 2000, Vladimir Putin slowly restored the authoritarian state and many were happy because they hated the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.
Between 2000 and 2014, Putin only went after those who were organised like liberal oligarchs. But after 2014 he also turend against individuals, like us revolutionary socialists who oppose his tzarist style of ruling. Putin hates socialism (and communism). But he is willing to use the Soviet-Union for his nationalist propaganda. You can see huge flags of the Russian Empire and the Soviet-Union next to the banner of the Russian Federation on the beach in Saint Petersburg. Yet the Kremlin blames Lenin and the Bolsheviks for creating Ukraine.
For the tsar in Moscow, the Stalinist USSR was good as it enforced Russian culture and language on other Soviet republics. Stalin is praised, Lenin rejected. The Russian revolutions of 1917 Putin denounces, while praising the degeneration that came with Stalin in the late 1920’s. This the paradox of the Soviet-Union in the modern Russian Federation. It is praised, yet the socialist foundation is hated and rejected. This is why we revolutionary socialists need to expose the Putin regime and how it works in league with the Stalinist school of falsification.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands has been a loyal dog of the USA. Under prime ministers Jan Peter Balkenende and Mark Rutte, the country joined U.S imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was called NATO capacity-building missions. In reality, Dutch soldiers were fighting the opponents of the corrupt regimes installed by the Americans. 24 soldiers of the Royal Netherlands Army were killed between 2006 and 2010. Now the kingdom is donating its F-16 fleet to Ukraine. A move only done to strengthen the Kyiv government. Meanwhile the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria is completely ignored!
In North East Syria, the Kurdish led Autonomous Administration is fighting Turkish imperialism since 2016. Turkey is a member of NATO and was not sanctioned when it invaded Syria. The Autonomous Administration is not aided by western imperialism, because it is under siege by a NATO member. While the western world attacks Russia, the criminal invasion of northern Syria is ignored. Here we see the hypocrisy of western imperialism. Ukraine is fully supplied with heavy tanks and planes, while the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria is not!
Ukraine cannot win back their lost territories by military means. Even with all the western weapons it lacks the man power to defeat Russia. The Ukrainian offensive has not resulted in massive victories. Front lines have moved little as of late August 2023. The fact that Ukraine remains silent on this proofs that their offensive is not having the effect many in the west hoped for. What is to be done now? Some say that Ukraine must accept peace talks in order to stop the war. We say that there is an alternative!
The alternative is building socialism! This could rally Russian workers against the tsar in Moscow and his henchman. Socialism in Ukraine unfortunate is a dirty word. Like the USA, antisocialist politicians and their capitalist media have brainwashed a new generation with the idea that socialism stands equal to Russia. Young Ukrainians born after 1991 only know socialism as something undemocratic. While there is nostalgia for the Soviet-Union among elderly ethnic Russians, many ethnic Ukrainians oppose it. Also we must not forget that many (Stalinist) leftists in Ukraine have historically always sided with the Kremlin!
This makes it very difficult for revolutionary socialists to fight for a socialist alternative, in a country that equals socialism with Russian colonialism. Yet, socialism is the only alternative out the crisis that capitalism created. As International Socialist Alternative explains: We cannot rely on any of the imperialist institutions or war machines involved to create peace, let alone prosperity… We should have no trust in these imperialist bodies. Any ”diplomatic solution” agreed between them, while it would be welcomed initially by people worldwide, will ultimately be at the expense of ordinary people and only prepare the ground for further tensions and confrontations.
It is reported that the Ukrainian Army has begun their summer offensive against the Russian occupiers. Armed with western weaponry and tanks, the army of Ukraine is attacking the Russian lines in the Donbas region. We know that one Leopard 2A6 was abandoned, four M2 Bradleys damaged or abandoned and one BMR-2 tank was destroyed in the Zaporizhzia Region. If the Ukrainian Army can push the Russian imperialists out, the western world will see it as a victory and use that to supply more weapons to Ukraine. But for working class people, the defeat of Russian imperialism is not true liberation.
Revolutionary Socialist Media opposes western weapons for Ukraine. Despite that some leftists openly support western guns for Ukraine, we know that arming the Kyiv government will not bring about victory for working class people. At the same time weapons in the hands of a capitalist state will always be used against the working class in a potential revolution. Those who support western guns call the Ukraine war, a war of national liberation. This war is a proxy war in the new imperialist Cold War between western imperialism (mainly NATO and EU) and eastern imperialism (mainly China and Russia). Ukraine is a pawn in this game.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he wrongly thinks that he can annex the Russian speaking parts of the country, with the same ease he took Crimea in 2014. But the imperialists in the Kremlin were wrong, Ukrainians rallied behind the Kyiv government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For them this battle is a nationalist war, a ”great patriotic war” against a foreign imperialist country that does not accept their existence. Because Vladimir Putin blames the Bolsheviks for the creation of Ukraine, despite that the first Ukrainian People’s Republic was a bourgeois capitalist state in 1917.
In this imperialist conflict, the symbols of the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics are abused by the Russian imperialists. The Soviet victory flag of 1945 is used by Russian soldiers as a war symbol. By using Soviet symbols, the Russian imperialists only strengthen the anti-communist propaganda of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who now can equal the Soviet-Union with that of the Russian Empire. For Putin and the Russian imperialists, the USSR is indeed seen as ”Russian”. This despite the fact that Putin hates socialism and the foundation ideas of the Soviet-Union. This is why the Kremlin ignores Lenin, but praises Stalin!
Revolutionary socialists do not side with Zelenskyy, who has fully subjugated his country to the wishes of western imperialism. Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to join NATO and the European Union. We know that this will not help Ukrainian workers. The Kyiv government is already attacking the working class by preparing more deregulation and privatisation of state enterprises. Zelenskyy is using the war to push anti-worker and anti-union laws through the Ukrainian parliament. We never hear this in the western media, because western nations support these capitalist laws.
The summer offensive is now three days ongoing. Since both Ukraine and Russia remain silent on victories and loses, we do not know the fine details. Russian imperialism claims to stop any Ukrainian attack, but we know that Russia is a master in lying. The propaganda goes very far in claiming that Russia is fighting for religion, traditions and nationhood. The same words we heard coming from the Nazi propaganda, when they invaded the Soviet-Union in June 1941.
What is to be done? We revolutionary socialists oppose both western imperialist guns and the Russian occupation. Ukraine has the right to fight back and to accept western weapons. But we cannot expect western workers to pay for the Ukraine war. Sooner or later, the ammunition is depleted and the military industrial complex is the one who will get rich, if we allow our governments to spend our money on wars. This is why we call for socialist solutions to this conflict, meaning a alternative to the capitalist system and its imperialist Cold War.
It is understandable that Ukrainian workers rally behind Zelenskyy. But this is not helpful as Zelenskyy is not a socialist nor a supporter of the working class. He is a western type capitalist politician, who has this misguided view that European style capitalism works. Zelenskyy is a good actor and knows how to play the role of a leader under siege. But his (neo)liberalism changed nothing. He had lost the support of many voters and would have lost the elections had Russia not invaded in February 2022. Zelenskyy only had a 32% approval rating just before the invasion.
Revolutionary socialists of International Socialist Alternative say:
We fight against the trap of the “lesser evil” — supporting one capitalist or imperialist force against another. We stand for an independent working class position in all questions. This is not easy or automatic. It requires theoretical clarity and democratic discussion to reach a common analysis. Capitalism is a desperately sick system. It threatens the planet’s very existence. A new labour movement will be built in the titanic mass struggles ahead. With the genuine ideas of Marxism, the international working class will be equal to history’s challenge.
This is why we do not support one imperialist camp over another. We reject western arms for Ukraine as it would strengthen one capitalist class, especially the American/European military industrial complex. Ukraine can win this conflict by building a socialist alternative, this could rally Russian workers against Putin. Because this is what the Kremlin fears the most. If the Ukrainian government was a genuine product of the working class it would abandon the dictates of NATO, dissolve the far-right militia’s and expropriate the wealth of the oligarchs and capitalists.
But this is not what capitalist Ukraine is doing. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put his country in the western imperialist camp. This is why we cannot give political support to the government in Kyiv, because it does not work in interests of the working class. At the same time we fully reject the imperialist agenda of the Kremlin. Ukraine might push the Russian imperialists back, but as long as Putin does not call for a full mobilisation, Ukraine has not faced the full might of the Russian army yet. This is why we say that this war cannot be won by western weapons.
A political revolution is needed in both countries to end the conflict. It is up to socialists and the labour movement to fight for a socialist alternative. Against Ukrainian nationalism and Russian chauvinism, against NATO and all who try to profit from war. Our enemy is the capitalist class and the oligarchy that has exploited workers in both nations since 1991. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin are the public faces of two brutal capitalist governments. This is why we say no to western arms, no to the Russian occupation and NO TO THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM that is playing a GAME OF THRONES with our lives!
The Antonov 225 was the largest aircraft in the world. Build in 1988 by the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, its purpose was to transport the Buran Soviet space shuttle. However the Buran program was cancelled as the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. This left the An-225 with no work as no orbital flights of the Buran were carried out after 1988. But the big cargo hold of the plane allowed it to be used as a heavy freighter. From 1989 until 2022, the An-225 flew cargo flights for Antonov Airliners, the cargo wing of the Antonov State Enterprise. On 27 February 2022, the An-225 was destroyed in the Battle of Antonov Airport between Russian paratroopers and the Ukrainian army. However this is not the end, there is another unfinished hull and Ukraine plans on rebuilding the ”Mriya” (Dream).
Oleg Antonov is the man who’s design bureau created the An-225. Antonov was a ethnic Russian who worked in the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic after the second world war. In Kyiv he worked on famous planes like the Antonov 2, a mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft. Oleg also worked on the An-12, a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft. Just before he died, his bureau had build the Antonov An-124. This plane would lay the basis for the An-225. The An-124 is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft. Oleg Antonov died on 4 April 1984 age 78. His company went on building the massive An-225 which then flew on 21 December 1988. The plane was meant to transport the Buran, the Soviet space shuttle. However due to the collapse of the USSR between 1989 and 1991, the shuttle program was lacking funding. It was cancelled in 1993.
With the independence of Ukraine after December 1991, the An-225 needed work. Due to is massive seize it became a heavy transport plane. It transported goods like as 130-ton generators, wind turbine blades and diesel locomotives. The An-225 set over 240 records in her 34 years of life. Because she was the largest plane in the world, the plane always got a high degree of public interest. However she was never a Ukrainian product as capitalist Ukraine lacked the political and economic will to finish a second An-225, which was abandoned after 1991. The An-225 was a Soviet plane, although the current nationalist government in Kyiv tries to paint her as Ukrainian.
The second hull was abandoned at the Antonov Design Bureau in 1991. Some Ukrainian governments tried to privatize Antonov, but the company remains state owned as of 2023. It is very possible that the right-wing government will try to sell Antonov again in the future to please western capitalism. Now that Ukraine has fully joined the western camp, it is possible that Kyiv is told by capitalist governments to sell off its state owned enterprises as other former Stalinist countries were told to do. The second hull maybe a lifesaver as it is 65% completed. Still it is estimated that over 500 million U.S dollars are needed to fully rebuild the An-225 as the first plane was destroyed at Antonov Airport.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the An-225 was at the Antonov Airport near Kyiv. The plane was undergoing maintenance and therefore could not escape Ukraine. Russian paratroopers attempted to take control over the airport and got control for about 24 hours until they were forced to retreat. In the battle between the Russians and Ukrainians, the An-225 was hit with multiple bullets. Finally a fire started in the nose section which destroyed the whole front of the plane. Although the tail is largely intact the wings are heavily damaged. It is clear that the An-225 will need to be rebuild completely. Ukraine is lucky that they did not destroy the second unfinished hull.
You can fly the Antonov 225 on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Because the plane is made available for only 20 euro’s/dollars. Here is a video made by RSM with the An-225 over Donetsk and Luhansk.
On 24 February 2022, the Russian army invaded Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin. 180.000 Russian troops supported by 35.000 separatists attacked Ukraine from the east, north and south. It is the first major land war in Europe since May 1945. It is difficult to estimate how many soldiers have died in this first year of war. What is clear is that between 8 and 12 million civilians were forced to flee the eastern parts of Ukraine. 7.199 civilians are confirmed death and over 11.756 got wounded. But unofficial numbers say that 40.000 got killed and wounded. Revolutionary socialists call for solidarity with Ukraine, but we do not stand with those who blindly call for weapons and full support for the corrupt Ukrainian government.
Among the political left-wing there is a clear divide. There are some who fully side with the Kyiv government and ignore the reactionary capitalist nature of president Volodymyr Zelensky. Reformist leftists have fully fallen for the illusion that Kyiv must be armed to protect Ukrainian democracy. This Ukrainian democracy is deeply flawed and until 2014 was more or less ignored by western imperialism. Ukraine was seen as a corrupt ex-Soviet republic and little attention was given since the Orange Revolution had failed in 2005. It was Petro Poroshenko who promised to bring Ukraine fully into the camp of western imperialism. This capitalist oligarch turned on the Russian minority and fuelled the fear of Ukrainian nationalism.
The Kremlin abused this fear by arming ethnic Russian separatists. As Ukraine was in chaos, Russian forces invaded the nation and took Crimea and parts of the Donbas region. The so called ”people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk were just proxy states of Russia. The façade of these independent states were kept up for 8 years, until Russia decided to annex them alongside occupied Ukrainian territories. Revolutionary leftists were divided. The Stalinists either fell for the lies of Moscow or call for peace win-out presenting a socialist alternative. Other revolutionary leftists see the conflict as a war of national liberation for Ukraine and therefore support western arms for Kyiv.
Because if this, some leftists denounce others as traitors for supporting Kyiv. This sectarianism, Revolutionary Socialist Media rejects. To support western weapons for Ukraine does not make you a class traitor, although this website thinks it is a wrong position. Western imperialism only supports the Kyiv government because they know it serve their needs. This is why the Kurds are not given weapons to fight the Turkish occupation of north east Syria, because Turkey is a NATO member state. Saudi-Arabia is using western weaponry to murder Yemeni workers, over 70% of all capitalist dictatorships are armed with weapons made in the USA or Europe.
The war has not resulted in a victory for Russian imperialism. Russia failed to conquer Ukraine and has not even captured Kyiv. Vladimir Putin has underestimated the desire of the Ukrainians to stand up to his brutal invasion. In the first months of the war, working class Ukrainians took up arms and some fought off the Russian imperialists on their own. Now there is no independent working class action anymore as the resistance leadership is centralized into the Kyiv government. It is naturally that Ukrainians look up towards Volodymyr Zelensky. But they seem to forget that this neoliberal only switched suits.
Like any bourgeois leader, Zelensky was seen in a business suit with tie. This bourgeois suit was quickly replaced by a miliary style outfit. Gone are all elitist cloths of a typical president, Zelensky knows that he has to appear as a commoner. A man who wears the cloths of the working class, all his ministers too no longer wear the typical business suits. But this is a strategy and it only hides the true right-wing nature of the government. Volodymyr Zelensky wishes for Ukraine to join the EU and NATO. He wants his government to have a deregulated free market economy. The Ukrainian government has already changed labour laws to force workers to work longer and harder for less money.
Russia has lost a lot of material. Their war material however is not made in Russia. Ukraine also has to fight with weaponry that was not made in Ukraine. Most tanks, heavy artillery and armoured vehicles used by both sides were never produced to fight each other. They were build for the Armed Forces of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and when the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine and Russia inherited a lot of weapons. Russia took the bulk of the USSR tank arsenal, Ukraine still got around 700 T-55 tanks and around 500 T-64. Most of the T-55 tanks were scrapped after the year 2000. This is why Ukraine lacked this old Soviet tank to be used in the current war. Russia however has rearmed T-55 tanks from storage.
The empire of Vladimir Putin is forced to fall back to vintage Soviet tanks because it has lost around 1500 tanks since 24 February 2022. Ukraine still has T-64 tanks in storage, but it is unknown if these tanks are made operational. Ukrainians captured around 40 vintage T-62 tanks from the invading imperialists and is now using them against Russia. The biggest price however is the T-72 tank, which was used the most by the Russians. Ukraine captured around 300 of them and will repair many. This shows how poorly the Russian army command is when the enemy is able to capture so many intact tanks.
This war will not be won on the battlefield or by western weapon gifts. Ukraine can only defeat the Russian imperialists if there is international solidarity and a socialist revolutionary change in Kyiv. Supporting the current Kyiv government seem logically and many due so out of solidarity. But when we speak of solidarity we mean solidarity with the working class of Ukraine. We know that Zelensky is a authoritarian neoliberal, who has used the war to ban political parties and who is willing to sell his country to western imperialism (NATO & EU). Victory against Russian imperialism cannot be achieved by the current Kyiv rulers. They are linked to oligarch-capitalist rule and only remain in power due to the heroic actions of ordinary Ukrainians.
Revolutionary socialists reject the war hawks in the western world, who now call for massive investments in the army. We say that only the working class can end this war by standing up to imperialism and capitalism. Yes, Ukraine has the right to fight Russia. But western workers should not be forced to pay for it. Because it is western tax money that our governments will use to buy more and more weapons for Ukraine. In the end, only the Military Industrial Complex will become rich at the expense of workers in both the western world and Ukraine. The task facing the labour movement today and especially its most conscious elements is to build a mass movement of workers and youth against the war, against all measures of escalation and against both imperialist camps!
The Russian imperialists have decided to abandon the city of Kherson. Moscow decided not to stay in the city and fight the Ukrainian army. The city of Kherson is the capital of the Kherson Oblast and was occupied by the imperialists on 2 March 2022. Called the Fall of Kherson, the city came under control of Volodymyr Saldo, who betrayed Ukraine and joined the Russian ”Empire”. Saldo was mayor of Kherson city between 2014 and 2015. Like all collaborators, he fled to the empire Vladimir Putin. The liberation of the city is a major propaganda boost for Ukraine, although the imperialists in Russia claim that they will return.
On 11 November after almost 8 months of Russian occupation, Ukrainian troops liberated Kherson city. The Russian occupiers had looted the city and stole whatever they could transport. But those who remained welcomed the Ukrainian army as liberators. With the liberation of Kherson, the Russian imperialists have been dealt a massive defeat. It shows us that Ukraine is able to fight back and defeat an army most believed to be better. Western imperialism claims that their weapons give Ukraine the edge over Russia. Although this is partly the case, many armoured vehicles used by Ukraine are ”donated” by the Russian army.
Russia lost a lot of material in Ukraine. Many tanks and armoured vehicles were captured in the last months and since Ukraine knows how to use them, they are repaired and send back into the fighting. In response the Kremlin is now sending vintage T-55 tanks (production year 1956) to the front. These outdated tanks are no match for modern anti-tank weaponry. It shows that Vladimir Putin has the same mentality as the czars and Joseph Stalin. For these tyrants the life of a ordinary Russian soldier means nothing. They are cannonfodder for Russian imperialism.
With the Ukrainian flag flying over Kherson city again, the battle is won. The war against Russia is not over. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy keeps begging the western world for weapons to fight. His western slave mentality shows us that his government is willing to subjugate Ukraine into the hands of western powers like NATO. Zelenskyy has already called for NATO/EU membership, which would require massive privatizations and deregulation of the Ukrainian economy. The European Union demands free market capitalism in all of its member states.
Revolutionary socialists do not support the western weapon shipments to Ukraine. Although the guns from Washington and Brussels help the Ukrainians, the main reason why they are winning is because of the Russian army. The imperialist army of Vladimir Putin is not motivated to fight. Their soldiers lack moral, material and a good command structure. Russian soldiers complain about clothing, weapons and poor leadership. This explains why Ukraine is winning as their soldiers have high moral and a command structure that works on trust, while the Russian leadership is build on mistrust and top-down centralism.
We reject political slogans like ”national unity” and ”NATO cooperation”. Capitalism uses them to control the minds of working class people. The politicians of the ruling class fear an increase in class struggle as more and more workers suffer from the massive inflation. Prices are sky rocking and many will end in up in relative poverty. As of now relative poverty is around 21% for the whole EU, with Romania and Bulgaria leading the race. In those countries 1/3 of all workers cannot participate in society and benefit from the activities and experiences that most people take for granted, due to having not enough income each month.
With the increasing prices for food, gas and heath, it is likely that more and more western people will experience relative poverty. Even those who never experienced it before. Spain, Greece and Italy are countries with a large population that is struggling. In the near future we could see 30% of all working class families living in relative poverty again. Revolutionary socialists say that workers need a program to fight inflation and the capitalist system. We need democratic control over the means of production and an end to speculation and market fundamentalism.
The Russian ”Empire” has declared partial mobilisation of over 300.000 reservists. This is done after Ukraine launched a successful offensive in the Kharkiv region. Moscow was deeply humiliated after its troops fled the battlefield, losing over 8.000 km2 of land they conquered since 24 February. Now Czar Putin is escalating the war by starting a partial mobilisation of the Russian Army. Up until now, the soldiers who fought in Ukraine were paid conscripts from poor Russian towns. Now the imperialists are ready to send in men who have experience and more training.
Since 24 February the Russian imperialists invaded Ukraine. They claimed that they were defending ethnic Russians and fighting Ukrainian Nazi’s. This is a lie as Putin simply wants to control parts of Ukraine with a Russian ethnic majority. He was able to control Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. His ”separatist” pawns have already exposed themselves as puppets of Russia. At first the so called ”people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk claimed to be independent states for Russian and Ukrainians.
But in reality, Russian chauvinism and nationalism ruled de facto. Ukrainians face massive discrimination as their culture and language become more and more restricted. Soon the puppet governments declared that Russian was to be the only language spoken. Now they plan on joining the Russian ”Empire” as powerless provinces of Moscow. For workers, the situation is growing more and more desperate. Ukrainian workers who got liberated spoke of terror and mass murder of civilians.
Its is clear that the Russian imperialist occupiers have proven to be very brutal. They did not come to liberate, they come to oppress and enforce the will of a far-right regime that is build on great Russian chauvinism. It is therefore that Ukrainian workers have every right to fight the Russian invaders and anybody who collaborates with them. However this does not mean that we call for more guns. We know that the western world has its own imperialist plans.
More guns means more profits for those who own the military industrial complex. Also it will not end the war now that Moscow is escalating the conflict by mobilising over 300.000 reservists. Ukraine may have won a battle, but Putin is not about to lose the war. He will send in wave after wave of Russian soldiers to be killed off. Russians know this and many are now trying to escape the empire of czar Putin. Over 200.000 of them have already fled since 24 February, a massive brain drain.
War-hawks in the empire are calling for a full mobilization. Among the most vocal is Stalinist dinosaur; Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the pseudo-Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Zyuganov is the boss of the Stalinist remnants since 1993. A loyal supporter of the Kremlin, Zyuganov claims to oppose the capitalist system, when in reality his ”communist” party accepts the market economy and the current Russian state. This is why the CPRF is allowed to function as a controlled opposition party.
Zyuganov has been very vocal about the war and said:
The appeal is in many ways fateful. The President absolutely objectively characterized the international situation as an environment of aggression by NATO, Bandera and fascists against the Russian world and our statehood. For the first time, he openly said that they set as their goal the destruction of Russia, its dismemberment and phased privatization. None of us can categorically agree with this! War is war. And I have told you more than once that she has only two outcomes: either victory or defeat. Every generation that has its 41st year should also have its 45th year. We just have to win!
This shows clearly how this Stalinist relic is fully siding with the reactionary czar in the name of fighting fascism. Because that is what Russia claims, that is is fighting Ukrainian fascism. Revolutionary socialists know that this is a massive lie. Ukraine is a capitalist state, not a fascist state. Its government is build around neoliberalism and the need to please western capitalist nations. Although fascist units are part of the army and Ukraine has a problem with glorifying far-right leaders, the nation as a whole is not fascist.
For the Russian propaganda however this all does not matter. Lying is part of the Imperial, Stalinist and Nationalist agenda since the birth of the first Russian Empire. Czars, Stalinists and Nationalists lied to the working class in order to hide their abuse of power. Vladimir Putin has used to the memory of the second world war and turned it into a massive propaganda weapon. Millions are misled, especially the generations born between 1945 and 1991, who already lived under the lies of Stalinism.
The winter will be bloody as the Russian imperialists will send more men to Ukraine. Only the working class can end it, by rejecting both the western imperialist camp and the eastern imperialist camp. Siding with NATO will not help Ukraine as the west does not want Russia defeated. The west only sends enough to weaken Moscow, to strengthen western imperialism against the main force of eastern imperialism, which is China. Ukraine is a pawn on the imperialist chessboard. Our fight is for a democratic socialist alternative to the neoliberal model of the west and the authoritarian oppressive model of the east.
The Russian imperialists who invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, have shown their true colors. Although the Kremlin lies to the Russian population, their army is acting in a very cruel and ”fascistic” way. We have all seen the deaths, the reports on rape and now we hear that Ukrainian farming material has been stolen and transported to Russia. The imperialists are not only invaders, they are murderers, thieves and rapists. Revolutionary socialists denounce the crimes committed by Russian soldiers and their commanders.
On 9 May, the imperialists in Moscow will celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Only this time the aggressors are Russian soldiers. The Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941, is similar to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian ”Empire” in 2022. Back then the Nazi’s also lied to the world just as Putin did when he organized his troops for an invasion. The Americans were right in their intelligence although many (including we) could not believe that Putin would actually carry out an imperialist invasion.
Among the Russian supporters of Putin there is also the use of the Soviet flag. Supporters of the occupation have raised the Soviet victory flag of 1945 and even restored a removed statue of Vladimir Lenin. Let us be very clear: The Soviet flag and Lenin stand in complete opposition to the imperialist agenda of Putin and his supporters. Lenin was attacked by Putin because he supported a socialist Ukraine on equal grounds with Soviet Russia. This is why the Kremlin denounced the Bolsheviks for creating the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.
But since Stalinism enforced great Russian chauvinism, there is a section of the Russian imperialist camp who uses Soviet symbols to hide their chauvinism and support for Russian imperialism. A Soviet flag was used on a Russian tank and occupation soldiers raised it to honor the (anti-imperialist) Red Army. Doing so turns the symbols of the USSR into symbols of Russian imperialism. It is understandable that Ukrainian workers fall victim to anticommunist propaganda, now that the occupiers abuse Soviet symbols for their aggression towards Ukraine.
By now in May 2022, Russia has become an isolated conservative dictatorship. Before 2014, Putin allowed relative freedoms as long as you did not go too far in your opposition. Now he has banned any criticism of the state. All political parties in the Russian parliament support the ”Special Military Operation” as the Kremlin calls their imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Along the loyal dogs of Vladimir Putin are the ”Communist” Party of the Russian Federation, the ”Liberal Democratic” Party of Russia, A Just Russia and New People. The main vehicle of the Czarist dictator is the United Russia party, the ruling state party.
Russian troops have captured large sections of south and eastern Ukraine. They have retreated from the north and now concentrate their attacks on the Donbass region. Here over 60% speak Russian and the Kremlin hopes they can win support there. The ”people’s republics” in Donetsk and Lugansk have acted as client states of the Russian ”Empire” since 2014. It is reported that Moscow plans to annex all occupied territories including the Kherson Oblast. This occupied part of the country has a large Ukrainian majority who will face discrimination as the Russian imperialists enforce their culture, language and currency on them.
After the imperialists left northern Ukraine, it was clear they stole at lot of farming materials. Ukrainian farmers reported that their vehicles were transported by Russian troops towards remote parts of the Russian ”Empire” like Chechnya. Since many farming machines are equipped with a GPS beacon, it was possible to track them as the Russian thieves moved the machines across their empire. Stalinists did the same in 1945. East Germany was left with almost nothing since most means of production were all moved to the Soviet-Union. Northern Ukraine was plundered by the retreating Russian army, which left death and destruction behind.
On 15 April over 900 bodies were found in the Kyiv region, this includes over 400 death from the town of Bucha. Here many civilians were murdered in a typical execution style. Eye-witness accounts from residents blame the occupation soldiers for the killings, which is denied by the Russian state. This is typical for the imperialists in Moscow, they deny all their crimes in order to lie to the Russian population. Since the news is now fully under control of the government, many ordinary Russians do not hear stories about plunder, rape and murder!
A rape culture is part of the Russian imperialist army. Like the Stalinist army of 1945, the present day Russian army thinks it has the right to take women as prices. Ukrainian women are victims of rape, this has been shown after the imperialists left the north of the country. Russian soldiers raped not only the young, elderly women who could not flee were also taken. Rape has nothing to do with sex, it has all to do with the desire to control women. Putin’s rapists also assaulted the women of Chechnya during that war in the year 2000. This shown us that the imperialist army of Putin is an army of men who think they have the right to a woman’s body.
Revolutionary socialists are not win-out criticism of the Ukrainian government. We give no political support to the corrupt state that is Ukraine. Capitalism has created massive inequality since 1991 and the comedian turned president has not changed that. Ukrainian nationalism can be used to rally people, but it cannot hide the reality that Ukraine is a deeply flawed and unequal society, ruled by the same type of oligarchs and capitalist scum as Russia is. Also western guns and ammunition will not end the war. Russian imperialism might be slowed, but western hardware cannot stop them.
What can be done to stop the invaders? Workers need to fight back in a organized democratic way. The Ukrainian army and its militia’s all stand under control of a government that does not work in the interests of working class people. Therefore a workers and peasants revolutionary army must be set up. This army must be open and democratic, under control of local councils of the working class. Meanwhile workers in Russia need to oppose and fight their government. In Belarus, brave workers are sabotaging railroads to slow the move of Russian war assets.
It is not easy and yes dangerous. Belarus and Russia are nationalist dictatorships who will use the police, state, media and army against anyone who stands up. Mass arrests, torture and murder are the ways of Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian dog: Alexander Lukashenko. Fighting against these dictators is essential, but this must not be done under the illusions that the western world is the beacon of freedom and liberty. Western imperialism worked with Putin for a long time. George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder were all allies of the Russian dictator.
NATO is not the savior nor the solution. Countries like Finland and Norway will win nothing by joining the western imperialist alliance. Only the working class of Ukraine and Russia can end this war, just as they did in November 1917. Sanctions against Russia do not work, they only hit the working class who does not control the Kremlin. Putin and his oligarchs are save, while the average worker suffers from high prices and job losses. This is why we reject the sanctions against the Russian population. This war is becoming a proxy war between NATO weaponry and Russian imperialism.
Although the aggressor is Russia and many of their soldiers act as thieves, rapists and murderers, this does not mean we reject the role of western imperialism. Ukraine was drawn into the western sphere because of the Euro Maidan which (like the Orange Revolution of 2004) changed nothing for ordinary workers. American imperialism has a history of aggression against countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. At this moment, NATO is arming over 70% of all dictatorships from Saudi-Arabia to Turkey, which is a NATO member despite its massive abuse of human rights!
The war in Ukraine is not over and it might escalate if Putin declares full war on 9 May. Revolutionary socialists give full support to the Ukrainian working class who suffer under the aggression from Moscow. We reject the lies of the Kremlin and its abuse of Soviet symbols. At the same time we reject the anti-Russian bigots who call for discrimination and stigmatization of all Russians purely because of Putin. In the end only socialism can end the wars and desperation of millions. Capitalism is a system that creates these conflicts. As long as it remains the dominating force on this planet, the wars will not end!
In a brilliant move the Ukrainian army was able to sink the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Moskva was a Soviet build guided missile cruiser. Build as the Slava in 1983, the Moskva was hit by two R-360 Neptune missiles and sank after the crew abandoned ship. This is the first time since WW2 that a Russian ship was sunk due to enemy fire. The Moskva was the ship who assaulted Snake Island in the first day of the invasion and told the Ukrainians to surrender. They responded with the famous line: ”Russian ship, go fuck yourself”. Now the Moskva is sunk, a huge propaganda victory for the Ukrainians.
It has a crew of 510, it is unknown how many were killed or wounded when the Ukrainian missiles hit the ship. At first the Russian imperialists did not say the ship was sunk. It was only damaged they claim. However as the day went on, the Russian state finally admitted that the damaged vessel had sunk in the Black Sea. Although the Russian media is not allowed to spread this story, the Ukrainian media will use it as a major propaganda boost. With Mariupol about to fall to the imperialists and a new offensive in Donbass in the making, the Ukrainians need a moral victory.
Build under the name Slava, the Moskva was a a guided missile cruiser of the Soviet/Russian Navy. The Slava was build in the 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant in Mykolaiv of the Ukrainian SSR. It is a irony that Ukraine build the ship and sank it. She served in the Soviet Navy from 1983 until 1990 when she was decommissioned. She remained in the docks of Mykolaiv until 1998. Slava was renamed Moskva in the year 2000 and reinstalled as flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In 2009, the ship underwent a major renovation. Old Soviet machinery were replaced and she was ready to serve the empire of Vladimir Putin.
In 2015, the Moskva was send to Syria to help the regime of Bashar Assad. She was charged with the air defences for the Russian air force based near the town of Latakia, that participated in the air campaign in Syria. Thanks to Russian pilots, the regime of Assad was able to survive the Syrian civil war. In July 2020, the vessel underwent a major overhaul to keep her in service until at least 2040, it would not come to that. Because on 24 February 2022, Moscow ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Navy was told to attack Snake Island, a small island with 14 Ukrainian soldiers on it.
It was the Moskva who attacked the island and demanded the surrender of the 14 Ukrainian soldiers. In a bold move the soldiers defied the warship and said: ”Russian warship, go fuck yourself”. It was reported that all soldiers were killed after the Moskva opened fire, in reality the Russians took the island and captured all 14 soldiers who surrendered. Their defiance however was a major propaganda slogan. Two days before the Moskva was sunk, Ukraine released a postal stamp with a Ukrainian soldier giving the Moskva the middle finger. There is no sweeter victory for Ukraine to have sunk the vessel they defied on 24 February 2022.
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