By Charles Tembo
UKRAINE is the victim of a tug of war between Moscow and the West, Socialist Party president Fred M’membe has observed.
But Dr M’membe says the Russian Federation’s security concerns are understandable but they shouldn’t lead to war.
He argued that Ukraine “is certainly not the frontline of democracy”.
“The way out, however late the hour, is to address that context, commit Ukraine not joining NATO, and to a dial-down of militaristic showboating by the world’s most powerful and dangerous military alliance,” Dr M’membe said in a Facebook posting.
He said the Russian Federation cannot be denied the right to self-defence. But this conflict should be resolved diplomatically.
Dr M’membe urged the United States and NATO to seriously and realistically address the well-founded claims for security guarantees of the Russian Federation.
“We urge diplomatic solution through constructive and respectful dialogue and preserve international peace and security. The world is aware of the presence of neo-Nazi units like the Azov Battalion in the Ukrainian National Guard, of the torch-lit processions in Kiev honouring the Waffen SS, of the Ukrainian government’s recognition of national days to honour anti-semitic mass murderers like Simon Petliura and Stepan Bandera. But this can be dealt with without resorting to war. Ukraine is certainly not the frontline of democracy,” he said. “We know how the United States and the EU connived to have the elected Ukrainian government overthrown in the Maidan coup of 2014. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was later elected on pledges to negotiate a peace with Russia over the Donbass and, domestically, on a platform largely opposed to the wave of neoliberal economic reforms unleashed by Maidan. He attacked the privatising healthcare reforms of US-imported health minister Ulana Suprun and the “illegal privatisations” of Ukrainian land. In power, he has been unable to act on these positions. Further land privatisation, opposed by three-quarters of Ukrainians, has been forced through at the insistence of the EU, so giant European agribusiness can buy up farmland and convert it en masse to monocultures, especially sunflower production for oil.”
Dr M’membe noted that Ukrainians have got poorer year by year.
“The country has the highest poverty rates in Europe. The land that was once the breadbasket of Europe now mainly exports super-exploited labour to its neighbours. It is unsurprising that Zelensky has been unable to negotiate peace in the Donbass. His frontline there has been manned by heavily armed fascists with no interest in peace. Ukraine’s President – whose tearful address in his native Russian to the Russian people included the proud recollection of his grandfather’s service in the Red Army – may not have liked these neo-Nazis, but has not been able to stem the rewriting of history demanded by Ukraine’s “Westernisers”.
Ukraine is the victim of a tug of war between Moscow and the West,” noted Dr M’membe. “It is no apologia for Moscow to point out that by stifling the Minsk peace process, by their annual military exercises from the Baltic to the Black Sea, by rejecting out of hand any idea that NATO might agree to negotiate troop and missile reductions in Europe, Western powers have engaged in a brinkmanship that has now exploded. The way out, however late the hour, is to address that context, commit to Ukraine not joining NATO, and to a dial-down of militaristic showboating by the world’s most powerful and dangerous military alliance. A war between nuclear-armed Russia and the West does not bear thinking about.”/