THE United States, and its NATO allies, with the UK in the lead, and the right wing Ukrainian regime out in front are daily accusing Moscow of massing troops near Ukraine’s border for an invasion, which they say may be imminent.
Russia has responded by saying that there is no such plan, but it has warned against provocations from Ukraine that are now taking place on a daily basis.
Russia’s state aviation authority said yesterday that its air traffic control personnel have been forced to divert the course of two aircraft to avoid collision with NATO spy planes in the Black Sea region.
Rosaviatsia – Russia’s federal air transport agency – said in a statement on Saturday that a Moscow-bound Russian Aeroflot airliner had a day earlier been forced to change altitude over the Black Sea because a NATO CL-600 reconnaissance plane had crossed its designated flight path. Russia’s Defence Ministry said earlier on Friday that it had scrambled fighter jets to escort two US military reconnaissance planes over the Black Sea.
The US Biden administration has now accused both Russia and China of planning invasions of US allies, in particular the Ukraine and Taiwan,warning them ‘of consequences’ if Moscow and Beijing launched any offensives.
There will shortly be a joint US-UK-Australian naval fleet in the Pacific. China has also issued warnings of the consequences of such a move.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also warned the West and Kiev against crossing the Kremlin’s ‘red lines’ over staging military exercises in the Black Sea and sending advanced weaponry to Ukraine.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been deteriorating since 2014, when Viktor Yanukovych was removed as Ukrainian President in a right wing coup organised by fascist militias supported by the the EU and the US.
This led to revolts of workers in eastern Ukraine which saw the emergence of the Donetsk Peoples Republic in the Donbas with an armed militia and then came the Crimean referendum which decided to secede from the Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
The current fighting that is taking place is being waged by the Ukrainian army shelling the liberated areas including the Donetsk People’s Republic, where men, women and children are being killed every day by Ukrainian shelling. This crisis situation awaits the decision by the US and its Nato allies for the Ukrainian army to retake the region, regardless of the consequences, and also to intervene in Belarus.
Currently, the US-UK are training Ukrainian forces for this task. The Kremlin has warned in vain that the US and NATO are turning Ukraine into a ‘powder keg’ by increasing arms supplies to Kiev and inflaming tensions in the country’s east.
Meanwhile, British troops are already on the Polish-Belarusian border, and will no doubt be reinforced if the Ukrainian forces are ordered by the US to liberate Belarus from the Pro-Russian Lukashenka government.
Ukraine now claims that Russia has deployed heavy-armoured vehicles, electronic warfare systems and nearly 100,000 soldiers around its borders, while Russia says Ukraine has deployed half of its army, or 125,000 troops, to the ethnic Russian region of Donbas, calling it ‘very dangerous adventurism’ by Kiev.
President Biden and Putin are set to talk about the Ukraine crisis on line tomorrow. ‘Biden will underscore US concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States’ support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,’ said an official statement.
The White House spokesperson said other topics would include ‘strategic stability, cyber and regional issues’.
There will be no Russia-US deal on the Ukraine, Belarus or on the Asia Pacific region.
In fact, the capitalist west is filled with a foreboding that it has already been overtaken by Russia and China, and is fast becoming a second rate force on the planet. rotten ripe for overthrow by the workers of the US-UK and the EU. There is a feeling of near desperation gripping sections of the capitalist ruling classes. This is that it is either ‘now or never’ for western capitalism.
UK and US workers and their trade unions must make it very clear that their enemy is at home and it is the capitalist ruling class.
EU, US and UK workers must greet any moves to war by the NATO bloc by organising general strikes to bring down the EU, UK and US ruling classes, so that the working class takes the power and puts an end to capitalism for ever. This is the only way to conclude this struggle in the interests of the working people of the world.
The slogan and struggle of the hour must be Smash capitalism worldwide. The enemy is at home – forward to the victory of the world socialist revolution!
