The war waged by Russia in Ukraine is striking in its massive casualties and atrocities that Europe did not know in the 21^st century. It questions the possibility of social progress around the world.

According to preliminary estimates, the number of victims , including military and civilian, is in the tens of thousands. The population of besieged Mariupol suffered the most from the killings. The arrival of the Russian occupiers meant the death of civilians from lack of water, food, medicine. To save their lives, more than 10 million people have fled their homes and become displaced or refugees.

Cruelty is expressed in systematic missile strikes across the country from Kharkiv to Lviv, the destruction of cities such as Mariupol, Volnovakha and Borodyanka, along with their populations, and mass executions under the guise of ethnic cleansing in Bucha and Gostomel. The abduction of outspoken opponents of the occupiers, the rape of women, and murder for profit have become commonplace in fascist “Ukrainian fighters” territories.

There is no reason to justify a Russian military attack that has naturally turned into bloody madness. But what is most frightening is that it is impossible to predict the end of the war under these conditions. Ukraine continues to defend the lives of its citizens, its territorial integrity and independence from the incomparably stronger aggressor, failing to ensure social development for the population. At the same time, this war is a challenge for all mankind: in a world where oligarchic dictatorships consider it possible to suppress entire nations, threaten the world with nuclear weapons and the prospect of mass starvation, building a democratic alternative to capitalism is impossible.

The harsh truth about the horrors of the war in Ukraine must unite the world against Putin’s right-wing authoritarian regime so that the horrors do not happen again on a global scale. However, these events themselves indicate a deep crisis in the existing model of international relations.

Emphasizing that the facts of war crimes in Ukraine vividly illustrate the true intentions of the instigators of the war,

Considering that peace and democracy are prerequisites for social progress,

public organization “Social Movement” states:

1. The United Nations must take decisive steps to restore its credibility.

We call for the deployment of UN (neutral) peacekeepers in eastern and southern Ukraine to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and new crimes against humanity. Peacekeepers must create conditions for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and their disarmament.

The UN General Assembly must recognize in its resolution the fact that Russia has committed crimes against humanity (by analogy with the UN General Assembly Resolution of 18 December 1992 on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina). The reason for this is the mass executions in Bucha, the destruction of Mariupol and the launch of missile and bomb strikes on civilian infrastructure in most regions of Ukraine. In its resolution, the General Assembly should acknowledge the inaction of the UN Security Council in ensuring peace and outline its intention to take responsibility for key decisions. The guarantee of peace should be the imposition of the most severe sanctions (including the severance of economic ties) by all countries against the aggressor. This will be a step towards the democratization of the UN.

Solidarity over competition must be a priority in international relations , and majority votes must prevail over the tyranny of vetoes. The long-discussed process of reforming the UN Security Council must finally be implemented: the representation of different regions of the world, especially the Global South, must be expanded, and the permanent members of the UN Security Council deprived of the right to veto violate the UN Charter and carry out acts of aggression. Russia to Ukraine, Saudi Arabia to Yemen or the United States to Iraq.

2. Russian crimes must be justly punished.

It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the involvement of Russian servicemen in the most heinous crime against humanity - genocide. An International Military Tribunal for the Russian Federation is to be set up, to which Russia must extradite war criminals, including Vladimir Putin, who is guilty of waging an aggressive war and indulging in genocide. If Russia fails to do so, it must be recognized by the UN International Court of Justice as having failed to fulfill its obligations to prevent and punish acts of genocide. It should be obliged to pay reparations in the amount of at least the damage caused (they already reach $ 1 trillion).

3. The world must help Ukraine end this terrible war as soon as possible.

To do this, it is morally justified to supply Ukraine with free heavy weapons for defense, which will equalize the chances of confrontation with the Russian aggressor, who has incomparably greater resources. We need anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons that will stop rocket attacks on peaceful cities.

Justification for refusing to supply weapons to Ukrainians by saying that they may be “in the wrong hands” (for example, in “nationalist groups” with a meager fraction compared to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Territorial Defense Forces) and hypothetically threatening peaceful residents, is nothing but indulgence of the aggressor, because the population is already suffering from bombs and shootings by Russian troops, which in the eyes of reproducing the practices of Nazism. The task of minimizing the threat of the far right lies entirely with Ukrainian civil society. There is no doubt that the longer the war lasts, the more opportunities it will give nationalists to increase political support and legitimacy.

4. Reconstruction of Ukraine after the horrors of war requires its restructuring on a socially just basis.

The basis for making certain political decisions should be the legitimate rights of people (to work, education, health, housing, safe environment) and the long-term interests of society, not the benefit of corporations. International decisions can partially ensure justicearena. Western countries and financial institutions need to unilaterally write off Ukraine’s foreign debt (more than $ 100 billion) and overcome offshore zones as such internationally to prevent the concealment of hundreds of billions of dollars belonging to Russian elites around the world. This step contradicts the foundations of global neoliberal capitalism, but it is absolutely necessary to save global peace.

These measures are possible only under the pressure of grassroots movements around the world. However, countless millions of people will benefit from this. Our country needs these funds, as well as funds under the so-called “new Marshall Plan for Ukraine” to rebuild its economy and build new cities - with affordable medical facilities, environmentally friendly public transport and convenient social housing. The course of socio-economic development should not be adjusted to the selfish interests of business, but determined by trade unions and other associations of citizens. At the same time, radical changes of an internal nature are needed, namely the rejection of thoughtless privatization of the economy, oligarchization of politics and optimization of the social sphere.

Qualitative changes can be achieved only if Ukraine undergoes a full-fledged transformation of the system in the conditions of direct democracy and socialization of the economy. In order to meet the needs of the entire Ukrainian people and ensure security, the property of Ukrainian oligarchs, whose parasitism became even more evident in the hour of need, must be confiscated. In this society there will be no place for conspiracy of elites and oligarchization, and the future will be determined by the whole nation, which as a result of this year’s events has realized itself a subject of history. After all, as the Charter of the International Labor Organization emphasized, lasting peace is possible only on the basis of social justice. Only the left-wing party formed by the working class of Ukraine with the support of the world’s workers can achieve progressive transformations .

5. Solidarity is the path to peace in Ukraine and the world. The risk of military aggression by Russia will finally disappear only after the collapse of the Putin regime and its great-power militarism.

Sanctions will create the preconditions for mass protests, and international support for the opposition will contribute to the revolutionary overthrow of the current course imposed by the Kremlin oligarchy.

Let’s free Ukraine from occupiers, debts and oligarchs!

Соціальний рух
(Social Movement)

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