US secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise unannounced visit to Ukraine yesterday morning, as the war to weaken Russia suffers yet another major setback as Russian forces continue to push forward and the fascist-backed Zelensky regime faces defeat.
This is the first visit by Blinken to Ukraine since the US Congress finally got round to approving $61 billion of military ‘aid’ to Ukraine last month.
This huge amount was held up for over a year in the Senate over a breakdown between the Republicans and Democrats over spending vast sums to keep the war going at a time when the US economy is drowning in over $33 trillion of debt.
Blinken delivered a message of ‘strong reassurance’ to Zelensky that military aid is ‘now on its way’ and that these new weapons will ‘make a real difference’ to his fast-collapsing war to defeat Russian forces and achieve the imperialist aim of weakening Russia and pushing NATO forces right up to its border.
Also in Kiev on Monday, was the Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey.
Healey told Reuters news agency that if a Labour government was elected ‘there will be no change in Britain’s resolve to stand with Ukraine, to confront Russian aggression and to pursue Putin for his war crimes.’
Responding to the announcement by Rishi Sunak that the Tories would increase support for Ukraine and increase overall defence spending by 2.5% of GDP by 2030, Healey insisted Labour would ensure it ‘matches the government’s ambition’.
He pledged that Labour is ready to spend at least £15 billion on military support for Ukraine – however, he failed to say exactly how this money would be paid.
In fact, it will be paid for by the same cuts to public services that the Tories have already promised in order to provide the cash for Ukraine.
The Labour Party is in a race with the Tories to prove who will spend more money on imperialist war in Ukraine and around the world.
In Labour’s desperation to prove to the US ruling class that it is a safe pair of hands when it comes to financing and supporting war to shore up American imperialism across the globe, Lammy, before coming to Ukraine, had visited Washington to meet with Donald Trump.
Lammy told Reuters: ‘I am pleased that Donald Trump seemed to signal the importance of granting that $61 billion and what we are hearing is that the aid is now beginning to come into Ukraine.’
All these ‘cast iron’ guarantees of unlimited support that Blinken is busy jetting round the world to offer to Zelensky and the Israeli regime for its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza is a sign of the desperation gripping world imperialism.
All the imperialist plans to assert its total domination on the masses and all the resources of the world through military strength have come unstuck.
In Ukraine, the long plan to weaken Russia militarily in preparation for some regime change that would open up Russia to full exploitation by capitalism has rebounded, both economically and militarily, on the western powers.
In Palestine, the Zionist state, despite all the money and bombs handed out by the US and its allies, has failed to crush the Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.
Instead, these wars and genocide have fuelled a revolutionary explosion amongst workers and youth across the US, UK and Europe, who have risen up against the murderous genocide in Gaza.
Equally, the working class will no longer tolerate having their wages, public services and jobs destroyed in order to pay for the billions being spent keeping Zelensky’s war machine from complete collapse.
The only way forward is for the working class throughout the world to put an end to bankrupt capitalism by demanding that the trade unions call indefinite general strikes to bring down their governments and take power by bringing in workers’ governments and socialism.
This revolutionary situation requires the building up of the WRP and Young Socialists in Britain and parties of the International Committee of the Fourth International to organise the victory of the British and World Socialist Revolution.
