2022-02-25

Finally, after the escalation of the war of words between Russia and the United States and NATO leaders over the Ukraine crisis and the widespread concentration of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders, NATO military transfers to neighboring countries in recent weeks and after Putin and the Russian Duma recognized the independence of the two “separated republics” in eastern Ukraine, Thursday morning, February 24, 2022, the Russian army launched air and ground attacks on Ukraine. According to news agencies, on the first day of the war, at the same time as the Russian ground forces entered Ukraine, Russian fighter jets attacked dozens of targets on Ukrainian soil. Dozens of soldiers on both sides and hundreds of civilians have been killed, thousands injured and more than 100,000 forced to flee their homes during the shelling and clashes. Simultaneously thousands of anti-war activists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and several other Russian cities marched against the Russian invasion, resulting in a police raid that arrested more than a thousand people. Demonstrations also took place in Paris, London, Berlin, Warsaw, The Hague and several other European cities against the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the slogan “End this madness”. It was as if the anti-war movement was on alert before the start of the war.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war and destruction is not a sudden phenomenon. This war is rooted in the structural crisis of contemporary capitalism and the efforts of the imperialist poles to redistribute the world and expand their areas of influence. This war is a continuation of politics in other forms. This war is a logical continuation of the policy of the imperialist and capitalist powers involved in this crisis, for which they have long provided the background. What is happening today in front of the eyes of the world is the result of developments in which part of the responsibility lies directly with the US government as the victorious power of the Cold War. After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, US and NATO governments acted as a ruthless victorious power in the face of defeated adversary, Russia and sought to extend NATO’s reach to countries formerly part of the Warsaw Pact and by dictating the economic policy of “shock therapy” to the Russian economy. They humiliated the country to the extent that it would not be able to return to the arena of international competition. With this policy, the US and NATO governments provided an opportunity for Putin to stir up Russian nationalism and ambition. European member states of NATO did not have an independent policy and practically followed the United States.

Vladimir Putin, as the epitome of an authoritarian and reviving tradition of the Russian imperial tradition that relies on the support of state capitalism and the private sector and government control over the military and oil and gas industries and the support of Russian nationalism, thanks to the rising oil and gas prices from the beginning of this century, and the revival of its economy, turned to military intervention abroad to expand its areas of influence. Russia’s military intervention in Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Syria, and sub-Saharan Africa clearly demonstrates Russia’s expansionist imperialist policies. Recognition of the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Russian military invasion of Ukraine is a logical continuation of the expansionist policy of Putin and the Russian government. Therefore, the claim of Putin and the Russian government that the military invasion of Ukraine was a response to the military threat of Ukraine and NATO’s provocative threats is nothing but a lie and hypocrisy. On the other hand, the claims of Joe Biden and the US government and other NATO member states that they are committed to defending the territorial integrity and freedom of Ukraine, to defending human rights and to the security and well-being of the people of the region are equally deceptive and hypocritical. The people of the world have not forgotten the painful and catastrophic situation the United States and its allies have inflicted on the people in Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq by invading these countries, and by waging proxy wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

Meanwhile, the ruling governments in Ukraine, which came to power after misleading the 2014 uprising known as the Maidan Revolution, were practically serving Ukrainian corrupt warlords during the eight years of the civil war and acted against the interests of the Ukrainian people, by not providing any democratic peace solution for the people of eastern Ukraine, and thus saw the continuation of the war and the influx of aid from European governments in their favor. The Zelensky government, which came to power three years ago, brought the possibility of a peaceful solution with the people of Donetsk and the people of Luhansk and the possibility of their voluntary reunification with Ukraine to a deadlock by collaborating with extremist nationalists and even with the Nazi currents, as well as by pressuring the Russian-speaking people, and practically served the plans of the Russian-affiliated groups that ruled in these areas.

Thus, neither the Russian government’s incitement to war and occupation policy in response to the Ukrainian military threat, nor the Zelensky’s defense in Ukraine and the incitement of nationalist sentiments, nor the US and British and other European NATO member states’ defense of Ukraine’s freedom and territorial integrity has nothing to do with the interests of the working class and the people of Ukraine and the region. By intimidating the people about NATO invasion of Russia’s borders, inciting feelings of Russian nationalism, and by brutally attacking anti-war activists, the Russian government is trying to divert public anger and protest against inequality, violation of human rights, and tyranny inside Russia and direct it at the foreign enemy.

On the other hand, the governments of Biden and Boris Johnson have found an opportunity to divert public attention in their countries from successive internal failures and scandals and the consequences of a scandalous withdrawal from Afghanistan and overtake each other in defending freedom and territorial integrity of Ukraine by imposing economic sanctions on Russia. While we all know that it is the ordinary people in Russia and Europe that will suffer from the EU, US and British economic sanctions against Russia. If the Ukrainian people are killed on the battlefield of this imperialist war, their houses are destroyed and displaced, if the Russian people across the border pay the heavy costs of this war by enduring the escalation of political tyranny and poverty, the people of European countries will also bear some of the costs of this reactionary war with the skyrocketing oil and gas prices and rising taxes. 

In this situation, the anti-war movement should not be caught in the trap of poisonous propaganda of the warring parties. The strategies and policies that led to this war are all

reactionary and capitalistic and have nothing to do with the interests of the workers and the people. The people who fall into the trap of Putin’s propaganda and defend Ukraine’s annexation to Russia are in fact tightening their bonds of captivity. The people of Ukraine, Russia and the newly “independent” republics should not look for the enemy outside the borders, they need to become the main focus of the anti-war and anti-occupation movement. It is necessary to shout the slogan of immediate cessation of the war and the end of the occupation everywhere. The people of NATO member states should not be deceived by the peace-seeking rhetoric of their governments. It is necessary to shift the balance of power in favor of the peace-loving people of Ukraine and Russia and the newly independent republics by mobilizing and expanding the anti-war movement around the globe. This is difficult, but it is possible.

With the start of this devastating war, the criminal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which considers the Russian government as its supporter in regional and international conflicts, has openly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Communist Party of Iran, while condemning the Russian government’s military invasion of Ukraine and the policies of rival poles which are to be blamed for the current war as the consequence of their rivalry over the expansion of areas of influence, calls upon all the activists in the labor movement as well as other social and protest movements to support and stand in solidarity with the anti-war movement.

Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran

February 25, 2022