Second Anniversary of U.S./NATO Proxy War in Ukraine
Failure of U.S. Foreign Policy Underscores Need for New Arrangements Based on Upholding Peace
This February 24 marks two years since the outbreak of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. The conflict is the result of imperialist aims of expanding NATO to encircle and destabilize Russia coming to a head. Years of foreign interference in Ukraine to submit that country to these aims included fomenting reactionary and neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine to seize power in the Maidan coup in February 2014. These reactionary forces then went on to brutally attack Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens in the eastern parts of the country in the years leading up to February 2022. This included not only laws which denigrated the Russian language but also brutal killings and massacres carried out by neo-Nazis with official support. All of these events were covered up with a deluge of disinformation meant to create support for the U.S./NATO war against Russia, using Ukraine as a proxy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a February 7 conference call that Russia's objectives in Ukraine are still relevant, enumerating them as follows: "Demilitarization, denazification, [and] ensuring the safety of people living in those regions that have already become Russian, protecting them from direct attacks and actually saving their lives."
"In addition, in a broader sense, it is to ensure the security of the Russian Federation against the background of attempts to destroy Ukraine's neutral status, suck it into NATO, and further drag NATO's military infrastructure closer to our country's borders," added Peskov.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a speech at the end of 2023, stated that Russia does not "perceive any interest on the part of the United States or NATO in achieving a just settlement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. They do not want to hear about our concerns, let alone engage in serious discussions to address our fundamental differences. On the contrary, the West is doing everything to escalate the Ukrainian crisis, which currently creates additional strategic risks." Lavrov said it is not Russia that refuses to negotiate, but rather the governments of the NATO countries which in April 2022 prohibited Ukraine from signing an already agreed upon treaty to reach a settlement with the Russian Federation. Lavrov emphasized that Russia has never rejected talks. "However," he added, "those who do should realize that the more they drag it out, the harder it will be to come to terms later. Now we see how this prediction is coming true. There is no hope at all that Russia will be 'defeated.'"
The U.S. claims its support for Ukraine is unwavering, even though Biden has yet to secure additional funding despite months of efforts. As well, the U.S. has also made clear that Ukraine will not be a NATO member any time soon, and thus it cannot invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter to openly bring in reinforcements in the name of "collective defence." Ongoing wars guarantee huge profits for the arms manufacturers regardless of the outcome. As Biden recently emphasized, $40 billion of the current $95 billion in funding for Ukraine and Israel being debated in Congress will go to the war monopolies. He tried to win support for Ukraine and genocide in Palestine claiming this means more jobs. Mass demonstrations supporting Palestine in San Francisco and elsewhere was the answer he got.
The U.S. imperialists expect Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian, even though two years after the proxy war broke out, the corrupt reactionary regime that rules it is being propped up militarily and economically as well as in terms of the political regime from the outside. There are no prospects for a way out for Ukraine except negotiations with Russia for mutual security, including removing the threat of NATO expansion.
This is another abject foreign policy failure for the U.S. as well as Canada and the big powers of Europe, at the tragic cost of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives as well as many Russian lives. It underscores the necessity for the peoples of the world to not be undermined by the disinformation that the imperialists can sort out any problem facing humanity. It is important for working people to work out their own vantage point based on identifying and upholding their own principles and interests, not one that is based on the pragmatic calculations of the imperialists. They must discuss what is necessary to uphold the cause of international peace and draw warranted conclusions from the events in Ukraine, Palestine and elsewhere over the past two years and more.
Ukraine's Military Difficulties
Ukraine has sacrificed the lives of hundreds and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers with thousands also wounded and disabled. It is in dire need of more troops and ammunition. The Ukrainian military has been calling for the forced conscription of 500,000 more troops.
Besides the lack of able-bodied people of military age to conscript, the Ukrainian economy cannot support that many more soldiers. The conflicts among the contending forces are such that Ukraine's Armed Forces Commander Valery Zaluzhny was dismissed on February 8, while a bill for increasing conscription and imposing harsher penalties for refusing had to be amended and is still in committee in the Ukraine parliament. An indication of the opposition to the war in Ukraine is the information that there are 9,000 criminal cases for draft resistance.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, previously the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, has taken over as the head of Ukraine's military. Syrskyi led Ukrainian troops against the people in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014, earning him the nickname, "Snow Leopard." He is also known as "the Butcher" for creating a "meat grinder" in the defence of Bakhmut. Two other commanders appointed by Zelensky also fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and one appointed commander of the Territorial Defence Forces worked at the Interior Ministry headed the Internal Troops during the massacre of the Maidan protests in 2014. All are known to be associated with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. In January, Syrskyi said that ground forces are now on "active defence" and are no longer attempting to gain territory after last year's failed counteroffensive. In fact, on February 17, the Ukrainian military withdrew from the city of Avdeevka, where intense combat had taken place for months.
That the U.S./NATO criminals refuse negotiations and demand more war is seen in calls by NATO's Atlantic Council that Ukraine should "hold the front line," and stay on the defensive in what they admit is a war of attrition. The Council also admits that both EU and U.S. commitments for aid and supplies are facing serious problems. The U.S., previously the largest military funder of Ukraine, since last fall has been unable to make any substantial arms shipments. After two years, and with arms to Israel as well, U.S. lack of more military equipment and armaments is such that there is concern that should the U.S. need to fight a major war, it would be unable to do so for lack of supplies.
It is reported that Ukrainian forces on the front lines are running low on ammunition. Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, in a letter to EU defence ministers, requested more ammunition, saying Ukrainian forces are rationed to firing only 2,000 shells per day. This is only one-third of Russia's capacity, he said. In the summer of 2023, Ukraine had been able to fire 7,500 shells per day. The front line is some 1,500 kilometres long.
In March 2023, the European Union, a bloc of 27 countries, had pledged to supply 1 million shells by March 2024, but now says only 524,000 shells will be delivered to Ukraine by that time. Only 300,000 shells were delivered after seven months. The EU says that by the end of 2024, it will be able to send a total of 1.1 million shells. As of the fall of 2023, major arms manufacturer Nammo of Norway said that Europe's yearly production capacity was only 500,000 shells.
At this point, while demanding continued war, the U.S, and EU are unable to provide Ukraine with the ammunition and supplies it needs, increasing its desperation.
As a further example of contention in Europe, Britain increased its military aid to Ukraine by 2.5 billion pounds (U.S.$3.2 billion), which British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called "the largest aid package since the beginning of the war." This aid, that includes various armaments and training of troops, is said to make Britain the second highest European provider of military aid to Ukraine after Germany.
On February 16, Germany, the EU's largest military donor to Ukraine, in an effort to strengthen its influence, signed a "long-term security agreement" with Ukraine. This year alone, Germany is said to have pledged 7 billion euros (U.S.$7.6 billion) in military aid to Ukraine. This aid is going directly to Ukraine and bypassing the EU's war fund, called the European Peace Facility (EPF).
According to EU rules, as the largest economy, Germany is responsible for 1.3 billion euros out of the 5 billion euros of military aid the EU plans to give Ukraine this year. Germany says its direct funding to Ukraine counts against this and that it should not have to provide further aid. France, which also signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine, is insisting that the EPF should only be used to fund European arms producers. Hungary, which is still blocking Sweden's membership in NATO, has also been blocking planned disbursements to Ukraine from the EPF.
Denmark has now also signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. The agreement provides for 1.8 billion euros in support of Ukraine this year. Denmark will also support efforts to ensure the full potential of the F-16 jets promised to Ukraine through the aviation coalition, providing fighters, ammunition, simulators, training and maintenance, Zelensky announced.
A main reason for the difficulties the EU and U.S. face is the continuing and widespread opposition to war and war funding. These include that of farmers who have been holding demonstrations in their tens of thousands across Europe to oppose their untenable living and working conditions.
U.S./NATO War Damaging Ukraine Economy
In November 2023, Ukraine Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that Ukraine was at risk of a serious economic downturn in 2024 unless the U.S. and other NATO countries can muster enough funds to fill a massive hole in its budget. This hole is mainly the result of massive war funding and corruption. Finance ministry officials said they expect to receive $41 billion in international aid in 2024 and that Ukraine expects a budget deficit of about $43 billion in 2024.
On February 1, the European Union approved a deal to establish a 50-billion-euro plan to keep an otherwise bankrupt Ukrainian government afloat. "We've got the 27 heads of state and government to reach a political agreement that will allow us to mobilize 50 additional billion [euros] as part of the Ukraine Facility," said Charles Michel, the president of the European Council. The special fund, known as the Ukraine Facility, combines 33 billion euros in loans and 17 billion euros in grants and will be gradually disbursed from 2024-2027. It is well known that loans mean more debt, interest payments and control by the European financiers. This is evident in the demand that the loans will be conditional on Ukraine doing what Europe and the U.S. cannot, which is ending corruption and fraud.
In March 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a new 48-month lending program for Ukraine worth some $15.6 billion. In December 2023, the IMF approved a $900-million disbursement for Ukraine bringing total IMF funding for 2023 to $4.5 billion. In 2024, Ukraine is looking to receive $5.4 billion from the IMF. Each tranche is linked to a series of measures that tighten the control of the global financial oligarchy over Ukraine. In addition, Ukraine also expects about $1.5 billion from other international financial institutions, including the World Bank, next year. Should the promised funds from EU, IMF and U.S. actually materialize, which is highly unlikely, this comes to about $30 billion out of the $41 billion Ukraine says it needs to avoid bankruptcy this year. The result is that Ukraine is owned lock, stock and barrel by foreign financial institutions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban described Ukraine as a bankrupt state and said the funding support was to prevent its complete collapse. He stated that "the Ukrainian economy is connected to a life-support machine. But for support from the European Union and the United States, there would be no salaries, pensions or working institutions, and 'closing shop' would be the sole option left."
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 13 - February 23, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54139.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca