At the dawn of Thursday, February 24, Vladimir Putin ordered a major military offensive over Ukraine, bombing strategic military targets in numerous cities of the country. Immediately, NATO and the imperialist governments of the USA and Europe once again broadcasted their boundless cynicism and condemned this violation of “international law” that undermines “European and world security and stability”.
The same powers which have reduced nations like Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya or Afghanistan to rubble, which perpetrated a war in Yugoslavia to dismember the country for the benefit of German and American multinationals, which have supported military interventions, coups and bloody military dictatorships, the same powers that after the disappearance of the USSR took advantage of Russia's weakness to extend NATO's tentacles to its borders and gain an obvious geostrategic advantage... now lament that Putin resorts to the same weapons to secure the interests of its capitalist and oligarchic regime.
As internationalist communists we have to say loud and clear that NATO, the US and the EU are fully responsible for the events taking place in Ukraine today. They were the ones who in 2013-14, taking advantage of a popular movement of discontent against the Yanukovych Government, supported, financed and armed all kinds of far-right and neo-Nazi gangs to gain control of the Ukrainian Government, State and Army. The intention was evidently to gain a strategic ally to use against the growing strength of the Putin regime and its alliance with China.
Whilst pointing out these undeniable facts, we fully reject the military invasion ordered by Putin and demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops. For a section of the left, heir to Stalinism, Putin is presented as the continuation of the USSR, and he is portrayed as a nationalist willing to resist the Western onslaught who deserves to be supported unconditionally and uncritically. But, in fact, the Putin regime responds to the interests of the Russian capitalist oligarchy which, on the ruins of nationalized property, on the looting of the historical heritage of the USSR and on the robbery of the Soviet people, rose at the head of a system of savage capitalism with obvious imperialist aspirations.
In his speech to the Russian people 48 hours before the military intervention in Ukraine, Putin denounced Lenin and the Bolsheviks for the "crime" of having put into practice, after the October 1917 revolution, the right to self-determination and the independence of Ukraine, favoring its integration on an equal footing, with Russia and other nations, in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Putin accused Lenin of not holding Ukraine by force, as was the case under the rule of the tsars. In this speech, Putin showed that he is a Great Russian chauvinist, an imperialist, a staunch enemy of Bolshevism, a fierce anti-communist and, in any case, a successor of Stalin's repressive, centralizing and Russifying policy.
It is a thousand times a lie that the Russian chauvinist oligarchy is pursuing any progressive objective with this war. His interests are not to defend the Russian population of Donbas, nor to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, nor to care for the oppressed of the world. The Russian capitalists and the Putin government have obvious imperialist objectives: to seize sources of strategic raw materials for their economy, put essential trade routes under their direct control, and divert attention from the great social problems that the Russian people are experiencing by fuelling chauvinism to crush the national democratic rights of the Ukrainian people.
Changes in the international correlation of forces
The background to this warlike conflict, its size and possible development, is directly related to the struggle for world supremacy and the changes in the correlation of inter-imperialist forces. Russia has the support of the most dynamic capitalist power at the moment, China, and with this intervention it has only reaffirmed its preeminent role in world affairs, as we pointed out in our last statement. 'War drums in the Ukraine. A momentous chapter in the struggle for world hegemony.'
US imperialism, after its defeat in Afghanistan, has tried by all means to retain its historical influence on the European continent. Joe Biden has continued his militaristic strategy against Russia as if everything was the same as in 1991. But things have changed a lot since then.
US allies, starting with the EU and followed by the international social democracy, shrug their shoulders when reminded that NATO expanded between 1999 and 2004 to include Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. In other words, these champions of “democracy and peace”, “of the rule of law”, “of diplomacy”, weakened the defensive capacity of the Russian state to the maximum, which found itself surrounded by an unprecedented hostile siege. The attempt to continue this military expansion, bringing Ukraine into NATO and further encircling Russia, is what is behind this response. How would the US react if Russia or China established military agreements and had military bases or nuclear weapons in Mexico or Canada?
In 2008, NATO accepted the request for admission from Georgia and Ukraine, which had been part of the USSR for seventy years. But in August of that year the tables turned: Russia unleashed a military intervention to prevent the Georgian occupation of Ossetia and Abkhazia, encourage by Western imperialism, through Turkey.
In 2013, Assad's regime in Syrian was between a rock and a hard place, and the US could have finished it off. At that point, Putin made it clear to Obama that he would not let Assad down. Although Western imperialism continued to arm the jihadists, it did not have the capacity to send strong contingents on the ground; on the other hand, in September 2015, Russia launched a vast operation with airborne troops, fighter planes and a large amount of material, the result of which was the consolidation of Assad.
If one thing has become clear in recent years, this is not the same Russia that impotently witnessed the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and its area of influence in Eastern Europe being transformed into a gigantic platform for Western imperialism to deploy military bases and thousands of troops. Today, Russia's progress as a decisive international actor is indisputable: in Syria, Libya, the entire Middle East, and in Africa.
War is the continuation of politics by other means
War is the most complicated equation of all, and although paramount military conditions are involved, it is essentially a political matter.
At the moment, the war in Ukraine has a reactionary nature on both sides. Zelensky's government in Kiev is a mere puppet of Western imperialism, and has turned its administration and armed forces into a conglomeration of corrupt cliques where the influence of the far right is preponderant. As for the class nature of the Russian government, we have already pointed it out: it represents the interests of the rabidly chauvinist and imperialist capitalist oligarchy, which prides itself on its tsarist past.
The news coming from the Western media speaks of a rapid advance of the Russian army. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry, whose information must be taken with caution, indicates that there are already Russian troops in Odessa and that several armored divisions would be 150 kilometers from the capital, as of Thursday (NR:they were reported to be in the capital on Saturday the 26th of February) . It is clear that the might of the Russian war machine could take control of the main infrastructures, and deal a mortal blow to the weak Ukrainian army.
NATO, the US and the EU have already rushed to proclaim the catastrophic consequences of Putin's decision, but have been very careful not to announce that they will send arms and troops in support of the Kiev government. It is more than clear that a military intervention by NATO in Ukraine would provoke a conflict of such magnitude that the mass movement against the war throughout the world would exceed the one developed in 2003.
At this time, we can only point out general lines and be cautious in the perspectives. If what Putin wants is to consolidate his position with a coup de force, prove to NATO, the US and the EU that the game of threatening Russia's security is over, and maintain political and economic control of the Donbas region, or even its annexation, the bet is very risky.
It is clear that there are solid arguments for a sit down with the US, in order to discuss a global security agreement that guarantees the demilitarization of Ukraine and that this country ceases to be a platform for the maneuvers and intrigues of Western imperialism against Russia: China's support just a few hours after the beginning of hostilities, and the determination that Putin has shown in carrying out military operations, are very serious things. But it is impossible to make a serious prediction of what will happen.
So far it seems that the resistance of the Ukrainian army is being very mediocre, reflecting the rottenness of the Zelensky regime, and that Putin's troops could quickly gain control of the situation. But even if the government were to fall soon, and a pro-Putin puppet Executive was formed, it is doubtful that everything would end up giving way to a new period of stability. Even if Russian troops leave Ukraine soon, which is also unclear, the Kremlin may find itself in the medium term with a resistance movement flying the banner of "national liberation" for the benefit of the Ukrainian far-right forces and western imperialism.
Raise a massive movement against the imperialist war!
Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian people can expect anything positive from this reactionary war, except suffering, death and destruction. The defensive arguments that Putin invoked, "to protect the Russian population of the people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk", have been shattered by the facts. Russian troops must immediately leave Ukraine, as protesters in St. Petersburg and Moscow are already demanding while being harshly repressed by the regime's police.
On the other hand, the proclamations about "democracy", "the rule of law", or "national sovereignty" that have been spread by Biden, Johnson, Macron and Pedro Sánchez, are the deception used by wolves that cover themselves with sheep's clothing. They are just as responsible for using Ukraine for their imperialist ambitions.
We are facing a war between bandits which the working class of Ukraine, Russia and the whole world will pay for. A war that is one more symptom of the insurmountable crisis of the capitalist system, and of the change in the correlation of forces between the different powers and imperialist blocs. The conflict in Ukraine will also deepen all economic imbalances, exacerbate the rise in energy prices (gas, oil), basic and food products, generate a new humanitarian catastrophe with tens of thousands of refugees, destroyed homes, razed infrastructure…
But this war will not be stopped with calls for "diplomacy" or for organizations like the UN to act, which are a fig leaf with which the imperialists cover themselves for their manoeuvres. The war will only be stopped with the massive and bold mobilization of the working class and the youth taking to the streets around the world, and raising a revolutionary, internationalist and class independence policy that question the capitalist and imperialist interests of the powers involved and their governments.
If you want peace, fight for socialism!
