Peace groups urged to take action on Ukraine

 

 

 By Reginald Johnson

 

      As the crisis in Ukraine escalates, a national peace organization is calling on all peace and anti-war groups to pressure the Biden administration to change its “dangerous belligerent policy against Russia” to head off disaster.

  “If the armed standoff between the Ukrainian military and the Russian-supported separatist forces in eastern Ukraine becomes --- by miscalculation or design --- a conventional war between Russia and NATO, it could escalate into nuclear war,” said a statement issued by the U.S. Peace Council this week.  “We must act urgently to push for immediate de-escalation of this NATO-created crisis before it is too late.”

  The U.S. Peace Council, one of the oldest peace and disarmament organizations and affiliated with the World Peace Council, said the peace movement must demand that a negotiated settlement be achieved to defuse the crisis, using the Minsk II agreement as a framework; that the “US and its allies cease unnecessary provocations including increased arms sales to Ukraine and suggested NATO membership;”  and that  “potential threats to international peace be taken up by the United Nations and subjected to the provisions of the UN charter and other elements of international law instead of arbitrary and illegal actions by any state or regional formation.”

  Other groups in the peace movement, the council urged, should “reject demonization of Russian leaders,” such as Russian President Vladimir Putin.  The villification of Putin and Russia in the media “is an integral part of (a) policy of inventing imaginary enemies as has been done to a long list of foreign leaders and nations” who have attempted to pursue an independent foreign policy, the statement said.

   The peace council took their position as the situation in Ukraine grows worse by the day. NATO warplanes in recent months have been conducting exercises near the Russian border and the US has led military exercises involving 30,000 NATO troops in the region stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Last month the US staged simulation bombing raids within 12 miles of Russian airspace and US warships have entered both the Baltic and Black seas, which border the Russian Federation.

   In response, Russia has stationed thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border.

The United States has given $2.5 billion in military aid to the Ukrainian regime to help in its fight against Russian-backed separatists. The US has warned Russia not to invade Ukraine, triggering a diplomatic crisis. (Istock photo)

   There’s been considerable talk in the American press that Russia is getting set to invade Ukraine since it is “massing troops” along its border with Ukraine. No mention is made in the reports about US and NATO activity in the area.

    Meanwhile, President Joseph Biden --- citing the need to protect Ukraine’s “sovereignty” ---- has threatened Russia with harsh economic sanctions, if an invasion takes place.

    Media pundits and members of Congress --- from both parties --- have been denouncing Russia and prodding Biden to act “tough” towards Putin to stop “Russian aggression.” The rhetoric from some lawmakers is getting reckless, with one senator suggesting the US consider launching a first strike nuclear attack if Russia invades Ukraine.

   Since 2014, when the US engineered a coup in Ukraine to establish an anti-Russian government, America has given Ukraine $2.5 billion worth of military aid. In 2021 alone, the US has given $275 million in aid.

  The Russians clearly see these developments --- the continued flow of lethal aid to a neighboring country, the NATO military activity and talk of Ukraine joining NATO, as constituting a security threat.

  Russian officials have made clear that the idea of Ukraine joining NATO is a nonstarter for any diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis. The Russians are bitter that the United States reneged on its pledge made by Secretary of State James Baker in 1991 to Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev that NATO would not expand its membership by taking in any of the old Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe. In fact, by the late ‘90s almost all of the old so-called Iron Curtain countries --- East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states were all allowed to join NATO.

   At a December 23 press conference, Putin stressed that “Further movement of NATO eastward is unacceptable. They are on the threshold of our house. Is it an excessive demand – no more attack weapon systems near our home? Is there something unusual about this?”

   Henry Lowendorf, a member of the US Peace Council, commented that “One need not be an unqualified admirer of the politics of Vladimir Putin to acknowledge that the Russian leader has legitimate security concerns.”

  The council statement said that recently-announced security proposals by Russia, together with the steps outlined in the Minsk agreement, could form the basis of a diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis.

  The Russian proposals given to the US include a promise for each side to refrain from carrying out activities affecting each other’s security, preventing NATO’s expansion further eastward to include Ukraine, and abandoning any NATO military activities in all of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

   The Minsk II Accords signed in 2015 by France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine and endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council, including the United States, provide for the demilitarization of eastern Ukraine, restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over the eastern regions and full autonomy for the Donbass region.

  U.S. Peace Council officials said it is a welcome development that the United States will participate in talks in Geneva on Monday, January 10 on the new Russian proposals and it is also a good sign that on December 30 President Biden had another phone conversation with President Putin.

  But the council statement noted that, “ Despite these diplomatic efforts, powerful institutional and economic forces in the US – the military-industrial complex, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and others – are eager for a new Cold War with Russia which would provide them with boundless opportunities for profitable contracts.”