THIS WEEK the deal between the Tory and Ukrainian government to allow Kiev to buy British warships and missiles, using a £1.7 billion-pound loan raised in London, was finally ratified.
In a joint statement issued after ratification, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Yuriyovych Reznikov, said: ‘Our governments have no desire to be hostile or to try to strategically surround or undermine the Russian Federation in any way’ while stressing that ‘Ukraine and the United Kingdom are strategic partners in security and defence.’
These claims that there is no hostile intent in the arming of Ukraine by the UK was completely undermined when it emerged at the weekend that a taskforce of up to 600 British troops had been put on standby for deployment to the Ukraine.
UK special forces units from the SAS and Parachute Regiment were warned they could be sent to the Ukraine within hours.
These preparations came after UK defence chiefs and the head of the MI6 intelligence agency informed the Tory government that Russia represents a ‘clear and present danger’ to the Ukraine and the West.
It follows similar beatings of the war-drum by US government officials who have been pushing for war, warning European ‘allies’ that Ukraine faces an imminent invasion by Russia.
The UK agreement to arm the Ukraine follows a deal announced last week between Washington and Kiev.
The ‘Strategic Partnership Document’ opens the way for the US to supply Ukraine with advanced weaponry and recommits the US administration of Joe Biden a policy of recognising the right of the Ukraine to claim the territorial ownership of the Crimean Peninsula.
The UK, US and NATO refuse to recognise that Crimea is no longer part of the Ukraine. Crimea broke with the Ukraine after the 2014 coup, orchestrated and funded by the US and EU, overthrew the elected president and installed a right-wing pro-imperialist government.
The preparations for an imperialist war against Russia have been ramped up dramatically with the US sending warships into the Black Sea and conducting constant military exercises in the region, moves denounced by the Russian Foreign ministry as ‘a destabilising factor in the Black Sea region’.
The issue of war against Russia has an added driver as the UK and EU face an unprecedented energy crisis and are wholly reliant on gas and oil supplies from Russia.
The rapid build up of imperialist war plans, manoeuvres and the arming of its reactionary allies in the Ukraine is now accompanied by preparations to send British troops into war against Russia.
The same build-up for war is taking place in the South China Sea as gripped with the greatest crisis in its history, imperialism is driven to war to attempt to reconquer the lands it was driven out of by the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
The only way that capitalism can try and escape from its massive economic and political catastrophe is through new wars and military interventions.
While Russia and China have an absolute right to defend themselves the only way to put an end to imperialist wars is to put an end to imperialism itself.
The working class in Britain and Europe will not stand by and support a war against Russia or China.
Instead, they will see that the same capitalist system prepared to go to war to grab the resources of these countries and open them up for exploitation and profit of the ruling class is the same system that is waging war on workers at home.
The TUC must take a stand and meet any attempt to send troops to Ukraine and engage in a war against Russia with a general strike to bring down the Tories.
Sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International must be built in every country to defend the gains of the Russian and Chinese revolutions by overthrowing capitalism in the US, the UK and throughout the EU and going forward to the world socialist revolution.
Socialist revolution is the only way to put an end to all imperialist wars.
