Since the beginning of March, clashes have increased, and information about the concentration of Russian troops on the border has already been indirectly confirmed by Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. The diplomatic instruments that previously held back open confrontation are also in obvious crisis. The last Normandy quartet met without Ukraine’s participation, and Minsk no longer looks like a neutral ground where negotiations between Russia and the West are possible.

In addition, the U.S. position has also changed - while Trump believed that Americans should not be actively involved in European affairs, Biden has a completely different attitude. In Ukraine itself, Vladimir Zelensky clearly staked on patriotic mobilization by closing several pro-Russian TV channels. For Russia, Donbass has been and remains a key lever of pressure on Ukraine, which is activated when other forms of intervention stop working. In recent years, Donbass and Luhansk have been placed completely under the control of the Russian army and special services, which have physically eliminated the most influential local warlords. A new war in this territory would be a clash between two armies, the Ukrainian army (supported by Western arms) and the Russian army.

There is no point in arguing about which side is more profitable in this war. When all parties are willing to rattle weapons to solve their internal problems, an accidental or deliberate provocation from either side could be the beginning of a massacre in which there would be no winners among ordinary people. On Russia’s side, the war is already difficult to cover up with any humanitarian slogans - it will be a pure struggle for geopolitical influence. And the frenzied “patriotic” and militaristic propaganda will be a successful background for the further robbery of the people and repression of any dissenters.

Our main enemy, of course, in our own country, it is the regime of Putin and his friends with their billion-dollar fortunes. No war but a class war!

7 April 2021

Russian Socialist Movement (RSD)