The two major labor unions in Ukraine — the Federation of Trade Unions (FPU) and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions (KVPU) — issued a joint appeal July 7. It calls on the international labor movement to respond to Moscow’s “brutal terror and the killing of civilians — including workers and trade union members in Ukraine.”
The statement points to the Vladimir Putin government’s murderous daily assaults, “launching missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities and imposing its criminal regime in the temporarily occupied territories.”
Moscow’s escalating aerial bombardment targeting nonmilitary urban areas in Ukrainian cities to try to damage civilian morale is a sign of desperation by Putin. Driven by Moscow’s “meat grinder” frontal assaults in eastern Ukraine, 1,000 Russian troops a day are killed or wounded trying to claw inches of territory.
“In these conditions,” the joint appeal says, “Ukrainian workers continue to resist and fight for the liberation of all Ukrainian territories — to bring peace to our land.
“During the massive shelling in June, Russia conducted 5,665 airstrikes (using various types of missiles and drones), averaging 189 attacks per day.” The declaration notes, “Only two days in the past 18 months were free of attacks.”
The unions’ letter cites a June 17 “nighttime terrorist attack using more than 440 drones and 32 missiles” that killed 28 people and injured another 134 in Kyiv and killed two more in Odesa. That night “26 educational institutions were hit, including schools and kindergartens.”
During June, several attacks clearly targeted hospitals and other medical institutions. Three ambulances on duty in Kyiv were hit June 6. Odesa’s infectious disease hospital was damaged by an airstrike June 17. Six days later, a missile strike on Kyiv targeted the Santer medical facility and a private clinic.
Russian artillery shelled a hospital in Kherson near the front lines July 1. “Eight people were injured — five patients and three nurses.”
Moscow attacked the port in Odesa July 3 with an Iskander cluster-bomb missile. “Two people were killed,” the appeal said, a dockworker and a truck driver. Other port employees, another driver, and two Syrian crew members of a civilian vessel were among the injured.
“Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are left without electricity, heat and water. At least 16,000 civilians, including trade union members and activists, remain in illegal Russian captivity, often subjected to relentless torture.”
In parts of Ukraine under Russian occupation, Moscow “has imposed illegitimate ‘representative offices’ of its own trade union — the FNPR [Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia] — in the temporarily occupied territories, attempting to legitimize illegal annexation,” the Ukrainian union letter said. “This is a clear mockery of trade union freedoms.”
“Thousands of our members are resisting and fighting against the Russian occupiers in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, working under fire.”
For international union solidarity
The appeal urges trade unions worldwide to “clearly and unequivocally condemn Russia’s bombing of Ukrainian cities and killing of civilians.” It also called for “the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, and the immediate return of all abducted Ukrainian children.”
The joint appeal was “supported by all representative trade union confederations in Ukraine.” It was signed by Serhiy Byzov, president of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine, and Mykhailo Volynets, president of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine.
The working class of Ukraine is keeping the country running despite the bombardments, even as it shoulders the greatest sacrifices at the front. At the same time, unionists are fighting to defend their rights and working conditions from attacks by the bosses and their government under cover of the war.
Working people in Ukraine are determined to defend their independence. They deserve the widest union support.