By IWU-FI
On the 24th of February 2022, the genocidal Putin invaded Ukraine. Three years on, we can see the surprisingly open support for Putin and his invasion, from US imperialism, in the name of the far-right Donald Trump. Out praising Putin and initiating direct negotiations with Russia without Ukraine, Trump, unusually, blamed Ukraine for the war, accused Zelensky of being a ‘dictator’, and that Russia ‘has its papers in order because it took a lot of territory’.
In this respect, we reproduce the notes of Isarn Pardes and Josep Lluis del Alcázar, leaders of Lucha Internacionalista, section of the IWU-FI in Spain. Published in the supplement of the 200th issue of their newspaper-press, which is 25 years old.
Three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
By Isarn Pardes
Three years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, neither country has been able to inflict a significant defeat upon the other. US imperialism has sustained the agony of the Ukrainian people, while prioritising the strategic project of the Zionist state and endorsing genocide on the Palestinian people. Russian imperialism has gradually advanced on the war front, while at the same time seeing the fall of the Syrian regime of the Assad clan as a blow to its international economic and military interests. Negotiations are now on the table, in Zelenski’s eyes as well, although it will be the imperialists who will decide their fate.
Putin, in a clear position of strength on the military front (despite the apparent failure of North Korean soldiers), is open to negotiation with the Trump administration. Both have been quick to compliment each other and have repeatedly demonstrated their personal sympathy and proximity in political discourse. Despite Donald Trump’s pompous return to the White House, threatening sanctions and tariffs on everyone, the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that official US policy is that the war must end. Thus, the process of reaching an understanding with Putin; who stated that any agreement must respect the reality on the ground, that Ukraine should not join NATO, and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the occupied territories, which would mean the amputation of its national sovereignty by fait accompli and the loss of occupied territories, such as the Donbas region and Crimea i.e. Ukrainian surrender, is accelerated. Zelensky gesticulates and expresses his disagreement, but has had to change his position, from denying any negotiations with the aggressor, to making future negotiations conditional on security guarantees from the West, including the request for 200,000 blue helmets.
The situation in Ukraine is at its limit because of its economic dependence, mainly on European imperialism (at least 40 billion dollars to maintain public services, support the population and maintain production), and it´s military dependence on US imperialism. The war has already left nearly half a million people dead, more than 5 million internally displaced, and more than 8 million throughout Europe, according to UNHCR. The neo-liberal project promoted by Zelenski’s government has excluded 90% of the workers from the agreements. It leaves them in the lurch and has already left more than 7 million more people in misery, whilst continuing to enrich the oligarchs on the run. This despite the fall in GDP since the beginning of the war and the need to restructure more than 20 billion in international debt. While it is true that Ukraine has the right to seek armaments wherever and whenever possible, given the double standards and the deplorable military aid it has been receiving, little by little and long-delayed, it also had the obligation, instead of further increasing foreign debt and accelerating the sale of public goods and services, to reorganise industry according to the needs of a country at war, as demanded by the Ukrainian left.
While the Ukrainian economy increasingly finds itself between a rock and a hard place, resting solely on the shoulders of the working class, the situation in Russia seems to have stabilised with the ongoing war. Russia is circumventing the bogus sanctions and cosmetic measures applied by US and European imperialism to make itself look good. It has also asserted its natural resources and the dependence of many countries on their supplies, boosted the fully functioning arms industry, replaced imported goods with domestic production, and deepened new trade relations with its international allies. Official figures from February 2025 point to the end of this situation. All this in the purest Stalinist style, subsidies for fighters and their families, and the harshest repression of internal dissent.
The Ukrainian people see how, what was supposed to be the great Western salvation, whether by way of EU membership or NATO membership, will not serve to drive out the invader. On the contrary, it has only led to dependence on the plans of imperialism, which sees Ukraine as a market and its population as a bulk of consumers, but does not care about their legitimate aspirations and what has been suffered in the war. At the same time it cannot feel defended by its own leaders and the various governments that Zelenski has reshaped. A planned economy in the service of winning the war, to reduce dependence on imperialism, is necessary and has not been promoted; the expropriation of all the oligarchs, putting industry and profits at the service of the needs of the war front, as well as the safeguarding of public services, which are in the process of privatisation.
Against the path imposed by imperialism, the way out for the people is opening up in the Palestinian resistance against colonialism and the apartheid of the State of Israel, and the fall of Assad – to which the Ukrainian war contributed, making it difficult for Russia to reopen the front in support of Bashar.
From Luta Internacionalista (LI) and our international organisation the International Workers‘ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI), we have worked with the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian left and have already made 4 convoys – and one cash shipment – of aid to the independent metal, mining, railway and teachers’ unions in Dobropillya, Zaporijia, Korosten and Mikolaiev. We call on the peoples of the world to continue to express solidarity with the resistance of the Ukrainian people.
All support to the Ukrainian resistance!
Russian troops out of Ukraine!
No to NATO!
US begins negotiations with Russia on Ukraine, without Ukraine
By Josep Lluís del Alcázar
Following Trump and Putin’s telephone conversation, talks have begun in Saudi Arabia with their heads of diplomacy: Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, who have set the negotiating machinery in motion. In the background, the normalisation of relations between the two powers and the recovery of US companies’ business in Russia.
The US accepts the Russian position that Ukraine should not join NATO and also that it should make territorial concessions. Trump is also asking to start charging Ukraine for aid (30% of armament) with control of a large part of the rare earth minerals that exist in the territory. Ukraine would be left without part of its territory and part of its wealth, which would be shared between the two great powers..
Zelenski, from Istanbul, denounced the fact that he has been excluded from the negotiations and declares that under no circumstances will he cede territory in order to sign the peace agreement. He also demands that security be guaranteed through NATO membership or the presence of international peacekeeper forces, to ensure that the agreement does not end up as a dead letter. Meanwhile, the European powers, meeting urgently in Paris, are exclaiming that they have not been invited and excluded from the negotiations. The decline of the weight of the EU, which, moreover, cannot act as a bloc, due to the dissidence of pro-Putin governments like Hungary, in the imperialist club, is more than evident.
If Ukraine, under Biden, was already a bargaining chip in the showcase of the interests of the great powers, no matter how much he dressed it up in big words about defending democracy and sovereignty, now under Trump, it is impossible to hide. Zelenski is on the ropes. He cannot accept the handover of Ukrainian territories to Russia. He should make a U-turn however, in order not to be politically dependent on imperialism, nor on the interests of the Ukrainian oligarchy. He is trapped by his own politics, as the comrades of the Ukrainian left of Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement) have been denouncing. As they say: ‘Moreover, the demands of the masses for social justice are increasingly present: miners, nurses, railway workers (…) If the social question, i.e. the redistribution of property and power in favour of the majority of the population, is not resolved, Ukraine is doomed to fall into an extremely precarious situation’.
