February 24 marks the opening of the fourth year of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war against the people of Ukraine. Ten days before, a drone strike, which Kyiv blamed on Moscow, hit the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine near the Belarus border. Luckily, no radiation was leaked.
On Feb. 12 President Donald Trump held a lengthy phone conversation with Putin, declaring “the war must end.” This followed a surprise prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow. Trump later called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to update him. With whatever shifts, Trump’s goal, like his predecessor, is to advance the interests of U.S. imperialism, not Ukrainian sovereignty.
This is part of the unfolding consequences of the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II. Capitalist powers worldwide are moving to rearm and advance their own national interests against rivals and allies alike. Trump seeks to protect Washington’s weakening world dominance, in Europe and elsewhere. Driven by intensified competition over profits, markets and resources, ruling families everywhere are preparing for new wars to come.
Moscow has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s urban population and vital energy infrastructure, including its four active nuclear power plants. Putin’s goal is to try to demoralize Ukrainian working people and blunt their fierce resistance. The drone armed with a warhead that hit Chernobyl was one of 133 launched by Russian forces the night of Feb. 13, 73 of which were intercepted.
At the same time, Putin’s forces have suffered massive casualties and loss of equipment and weaponry. Photographs and intercepted military communications show Russian troops are now being provided with donkeys to move ammunition and supplies on the front in eastern Ukraine.
Shift in U.S. rulers’ foreign policy
Many liberal commentators denounced Trump’s overture to Putin as a “bombshell,” despite the president’s repeated election pledges to rapidly engage with Moscow to end the war.
Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth told NATO chiefs in Brussels Feb. 12 that both Kyiv’s demand to join the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the return to Ukraine of all its sovereign territory occupied by Russian forces were “unrealistic” goals. He added it was up to Europe, not the U.S., to provide troops to keep the peace.
As Zelensky noted, “The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.” But, he insisted Ukraine would “never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement.”
“We want the war to come to a close. We want the killing to stop,” Vice President JD Vance said at a Feb. 14 meeting with Zelensky, in Munich, Germany. “But we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, led U.S. and Russian officials in further talks in Saudi Arabia Feb. 18. Their initial aim is to “normalize relations” between Washington and Moscow.
Trump administration officials are also pursuing a deal for major access to Ukraine’s rare earth and other critical minerals. Kyiv seeks concrete U.S. security guarantees in response.
European powers sidelined
French President Emmanuel Macron called an “emergency” summit Feb. 17 after the European capitalist powers were left on the sidelines by developments. Leaders from Germany, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Poland and Denmark, along with European Union and NATO officials, joined Macron at the hastily convened meeting in Paris. Just like Washington, the capitalist rulers across Europe see Ukraine through the prism of their own national interests.
“The Socialist Workers Party unconditionally supports the battle by Ukrainian working people to defend their country’s sovereignty,” Joanne Kuniansky, SWP candidate for governor of New Jersey, told the Militant Feb. 18. “We also call for all U.S. troops out of Europe and for an end to U.S. sanctions on Russia.”
