As we go into the new year it is necessary to challenge once again the sophisticated Russia‐led campaign that this war is somehow between two equal belligerents.
Allegedly they are made equal by NATO’s military support for Ukraine and Ukraine is entirely the pawn of the USA. It falls into line with the Russian narrative that the Ukrainians do not exist as a nation or a state. It belies the fact that Putin cannot defeat this nation in revolt.
United states military support is wholly inadequate for Ukraine to defeat Russia on the field of battle. Ironically the United States and Russia know it while large sections of the Western pacifist left continue to perpetuate the myth that it is.
It forms the basis of their argument that Ukraine and Russia should “return to the negotiating table”. The fact is that Russia has no intention of negotiating with Ukraine but only with the United States and NATO for the complete surrender of Ukraine.
Ukraine has not acquired the weapons it needs even to match the Russians in war because NATO aims to weaken Russia, dismember it on its own terms and reposition its remnants for its next confrontation with China.
You may well ask: how can anyone take Russia seriously if Russia bombs Ukrainian cities and towns at the very same time that it calls for peaceful negotiations? A diplomatic solution was out of the question when Russia violated the 1994 Budapest Declaration guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty by invading and seizing Crimea in 2014.
You may also ask what interests peace activists have in advising governments with such odious records of war crimes and genocide? We think our efforts are better placed in supporting the Ukrainian people and others fighting against Russian and American imperialism for the democratic right to national independence and the restoration of their sovereignty.