ILPS Statement on the Ukraine Invasion

On the Ukraine Invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of decades of imperialist competition for Ukraine and US-led aggression by Western imperialist powers since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The successor Russian Federation has developed easily into an imperialist power itself with its natural resources and own industrial-military base and starting with the former republics as its dependent vassal countries. Russian imperialism contends with the US-led Western imperialist powers in beating the war drums in Ukraine.

US imperialism seeks to maintain its military hegemony through the G7 Western imperialist alliance and NATO. It has succeeded to encircle Russia militarily through its troops and bases, and implement a policy of constriction through economic sanctions, political-economic initiatives in the former republics as well as the former East Bloc countries. All of these are the geopolitics of monopoly capital of all sides.

The turning point for Ukraine was 2014 when the US succeeded to prod a coup to topple the corrupt, undemocratic pro-Russian government utilizing neo-Nazi gangs in a bloody repression against the anti-fascist rebellion from the masses. The fascist Ukrainian government decided to ignore the Minsk agreement that was supposed to create self-governed regions and would have assured stability in the region. Violating the Minsk agreement, the Ukrainian US-controlled Zelenski government continues its war of aggression against the declared governments of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Crimea which has voted to rejoin Russia. This war has killed more than 14,000 people in the last eight years.

Russia has remained defensive and used its economic and natural resources and military might as leverage to counter the US-NATO security and military constriction and economic sanctions. But the military intervention and invasion by Russia in Ukraine also violates the Minsk agreement, especially the self-determination and right to development of the Ukrainian people. This invasion is pushed by the Russian monopoly capital which faces threats of declining profits from sanctions and overall constriction policy by US-led G7.

Putin uses the Ukrainian peoples militant struggle against fascist and Western imperialism to assert their self-determination as an excuse for its invasion which is truly driven by the political-economic interests of Russian bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the Ukrainian working masses face the brunt of the war and will not make gains until they all fight to liberate themselves from Russian and US-European imperialist control, starting with the bourgeois government beholden to the Western imperialists.

Condemn US warmongering and aggression against Russia!
Condemn the Russian invasion and military intervention in Ukraine!
US-NATO out of Ukraine! Implement the 2014 Minsk Agreement!
Support the militant struggle of the Ukrainian people for democracy, social liberation and self-determination!

Signed:
Len Cooper
ILPS Chairperson
27 February 2022