“Being a socialist you oppose imperialism – Russia has no right to a single square metre of Ukrainian Soil” – Jonas Sjöstedt, European Parliament Member of the Vänsterpartiet (Left Party, Sweden)
News reports, reactions and analysis : Solidarity With Ukraine Conference, Brussels, March 26 and 27 2025.
Jonas Sjöstedt, European Parliament Member of the Vänsterpartiet (Left Party, Sweden) spoke at the opening session of the international conference “Solidarity with Ukraine”, March 26 and 27 2025, Brussels.
Li Andersson MEP (Left Alliance, Finland) reports :
Ukraine needs support to fight back against Russia’s aggression, but we must also address the problems facing Ukrainian civil society.
Last week we in The Left group organised a conference in Brussels to which we invited Ukrainian leftists and trade unionists to talk about supporting Ukrainian civil society in the midst of Russia’s illegal war of aggression launched by Putin.
Their message was very clear: in addition to arms support, there are many problems in Ukrainian civil society that urgently need solutions. In particular, they highlighted the serious lack of affordable housing, the lack of care services and the proposed reforms which will weaken workers’ rights and trade unions.
When I was in Kiev last autumn, we also talked a lot about the housing shortage with the Ukrainians.
People cannot return to Ukraine and many internally displaced Ukrainians are unable to live or work properly because of the lack of affordable housing. This has a big impact on Ukraine’s social resilience and also on reconstruction. According to the UN International Organization on Migration, as of 2024 4.5 million Ukrainians have attempted to return to their homes just to find that they’ve been destroyed or become inhabitable. In Kiev, for example, temporary barracks have been built to house some people. Replacing two million destroyed homes in Ukraine is a huge task.
One part of the solution to the housing shortage is to use the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank, which are currently worth almost €300 billion in Europe. We need to find a robust legal basis to allow the use of these funds to finance a social housing programme in Ukraine.
We also need to stop Hungary’s Orbán from trying to block support for Ukraine and its EU accession process. We must remove their voting rights in the council under Article 7 – enough is enough.
Link :
Supporting Ukrainian Civil Society in the midst of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine launched by Putin
Howie Hawkins (USA ecosocialist) is joined by Tanya Vyhovsky, a Ukrainian-American member of the Vermont State Senate, the Vermont Progressive Party, and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), for a report back from the Ukraine solidarity conference in Brussels.
Howie Hawkins (USA ecosocialist) Interviews Tanya Vyhovsky State Senator (Vermont) about Solidarity With Ukraine Conference, Brussels, March 26 and 27 2025
Images of Solidarity With Ukraine, Brussels, March 26 and 27 2025, Brussels
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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