Ukrainian working people are determined to keep fighting to defend their country’s sovereignty, and have largely stood their ground under assault from Moscow’s invading military over the past three years.
The struggle continues as conflicts between ruling classes worldwide for markets, resources, profits and influence are sharpening. The U.S. rulers want to end the destabilizing impact of Moscow’s war, the largest military conflict in Europe in decades, in order to better advance their own strategic interests there and globally.
The Donald Trump administration wants to normalize relations with Moscow in an effort to halt the expanding ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and Beijing, Washington’s main rival. Trump also seeks Putin’s cooperation in imposing stability for the U.S. rulers’ interests in the Middle East.
After consultations with Kyiv led Trump to proposing a 30-day ceasefire, his two-hour March 18 phone call with Putin resulted instead in a much more limited agreement, to halt long-range missile strikes on energy infrastructure.
But Putin placed a major condition on further talks, demanding “the complete cessation of foreign military aid and sharing intelligence with Kyiv.” This would allow Putin’s expansionist regime to push ahead with its assault on Ukraine.
After a monthslong attack by Russian and North Korean forces on Ukrainian positions and supply lines in the Kursk region of Russia, Ukrainian troops staged a withdrawal to hills near the Ukrainian border.
As elsewhere, on the southeastern front lines Russian forces have suffered heavy losses in order to claim only minor advances, with the Putin regime continuing to sacrifice the lives of Russian workers in uniform.
Repression of anti-war views
The Kremlin claims a majority of the Russian people support its war, but in fact it relies on severe repression and censorship to try to stifle anti-war sentiment and prevent mass protests. As of Feb. 17, at least 1,185 people face criminal prosecution and lengthy prison terms over their opposition to the war, according to the rights group OVD.info.
During the past year, wives and mothers of mobilized soldiers have demonstrated in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, demanding the return of their loved ones from the front. The protests continued in face of cops detaining participants.
A high school student in Russia’s Ural region described the regime’s efforts to build support for the war at his school, in the March 12 DOXA Journal. Feodor, using a false name to avoid persecution, said the school gets visits from wounded veterans recounting stories from the front lines. “One veteran once said out loud how they ‘captured Mariupol.’ Sounds like a slip up. Weren’t they supposed to have ‘liberated,’” the Ukrainian city, he asked.
Feodor said that to participate in extracurricular activities at the school, students are required to join the Movement of the First, an organization established by the government to build support for the war.
Many of his classmates joke online that the association is like the Pioneer camps established for youth by the police-state regime in the former Soviet Union. But then in school, “they are forced to condemn the types of things they shared on their Telegram” messaging app.