Since 2022 determined Ukrainian working people have resisted Moscow’s invasion and drive to seize all of their country. Today the conflict has become a bloody war of attrition. With complete disregard for the lives and limbs of Russian soldiers, President Vladimir Putin is trying to expand the occupation of territory in Ukraine’s southeast.
Meanwhile Washington is attempting to impose a peace deal in order to expand its prospects for businesses and profits while rebuilding its relations with Moscow.
Talks underway brokered by President Donald Trump are aimed at ending the war on terms favorable to Washington and U.S. investors, regardless of Ukrainian sovereignty. Ukraine “is losing” the war Trump said Dec. 7, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things” demanded by Moscow.
Trump also says he’s seeking “strategic stability” across Europe with an eye to lowering Washington’s military and political profile there as he strives to reassert U.S. imperialism’s waning world dominance.
Moscow launched a major aerial barrage against Ukrainian energy infrastructure Dec. 6, coinciding with the latest round of talks between officials from Washington and Kyiv. Ukrainian defenses shot down most of the drones and missiles, but 29 sites, mainly of power infrastructure, were hit. The Kremlin’s goal is to deprive Ukrainian people of light and heat as winter sets in.
U.S. ‘national security strategy’
The White House issued a National Security Strategy document Dec. 4 saying Washington seeks “competitive advantage and military dominance.” The document especially highlighted the widening rift between Washington and its “allied” rivals in Europe.
The statement says an “expeditious cessation of hostilities” in Moscow’s war is essential “to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia.” It adds that Washington is “at odds with European officials who hold unrealistic expectations” about the outcome of the war.
Moscow hailed the White House statement as being in line with its views. Trump’s negotiators have backed the Putin regime’s call for territorial concessions by Ukraine in return for “peace.” The Ukrainian government says it will never give away any part of its country.
In another sign of warming relations between Washington and Moscow, 64 Russian immigrants were flown from the U.S. back to Moscow Dec. 9 as part of Trump’s deportation program. On arrival they were detained and interrogated by Russia’s political police, with several immediately drafted into the army.
Washington’s strategy document calls for the rebuilding of Ukraine “to enable its survival as a unitary state,” but clearly a smaller and weaker one. Putin demands a cap on the size of the Ukrainian military, veto power over any military alliances, as well as limits on its weaponry.
“Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories,” Putin insisted Dec. 5. He was referring in particular to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two strategic and well-fortified cities in western Luhansk province held by Ukrainian forces. He is demanding the Ukrainian government cede this territory in any deal.
This is part of his demand for all of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. And it would give his forces a more extensive launching pad for a further invasion. Putin rejects any involvement in Ukraine of military forces from capitalist governments in Europe. If these powers want to go to war, he told the press Dec. 2, “We are ready right now.”
Putin has gambled that his country’s much larger population and resources will enable it to absorb much heavier losses than Ukraine. Russian forces occupy 19.2% of Ukraine’s area in the southeast, which includes the Crimean Peninsula and big hunks of the Donbas mining and industrial region.
The Russian rulers’ territorial gains this year along the 800-mile front in southeastern Ukraine have been relatively minor, while its forces are suffering over 35,000 casualties a month that the Kremlin is struggling to replace.
From the outset Putin has made clear he aims to subjugate the Ukrainian people and their country. He denies the existence of a separate Ukrainian nationality and blames Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin for its creation.
Lenin for national self-determination
After workers and farmers conquered power in Russia in 1917, the Lenin-led Bolshevik government granted the right to self-determination for all nations oppressed under the czarist empire, including Ukraine. A few years later, Joseph Stalin led a counterrevolution against Lenin’s Bolshevik program, driving working people from power and reimposing Moscow’s domination over Ukraine.
The determination of working people in Ukraine today to defend their country’s sovereignty against Moscow reflects their deep-seated national aspirations.
For nearly 18 months waves of Russian troops have made small advances fighting for the ruined city of Pokrovsk, once a key hub for Kyiv’s military. The BBC reported on responses by several Ukrainian fighters there Dec. 9.
The Skala Assault Regiment’s deputy commander is a volunteer from Latvia. He said that Latvians “understand that if Ukraine loses the war, it’s going to be our country next.”
The commander of the unit, named Yuri, told the BBC, “I think the whole world should know we will not just give up our territory.”
Ukrainian forces still hold the north of the city. Another soldier, from a different unit in Pokrovsk, dismisses Moscow’s claims of capturing the city as “Russian propaganda.”
One fighter, who says Ukraine should not trade land for peace, added: “We are part of this land. If we give it up Russia will want more.”