Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: its origins and ramifications
Pacifist slogans about abolishing was are no longer relevant to politics. A serious discussion must start.
This is an interesting series of talks. Speakers do not agree on everything – it promises to be a useful exchange of views. One of the contributors is Jess Spear on the Irish left-wing organisation RISE, a network within People Before Profit (PBP). Congratulations to the organiser, Chris Zeller.
Hanna Perekohda is a PhD candidate in political science at the Institute of Political Studies (University of Lausanne). Her research focuses on Ukraine’s place in the Russian political imaginary. Her articles on Russian-Ukrainian Relations and the current war have appeared in various outlets. She is involved in networks of international solidarity.
This talk is part of the lecture online series Emancipatory Perspectives in a Multipolar World Full of Tensions organized by the University of Salzburg :
Tuesday, November 18th, 6-8pm Imperialism and the Gulf Arab Monarchies at a time of Climate Collapse Lecture with Adam Hanieh
Monday, November 24th, 11:15 -13:00, live at the University of Salzburg, HS 387, Rudolfskai 42 Dispelling the Multipolar Myth: Why BRICS do not offer an alternative Lecture with Patrick Bond
Tuesday, December 16th, 6-8pm Women in the Vanguard Lecture with Jess Spear
Tuesday, January 13th, 2025, 6-8pm Why Are Authoritarianism & Fascism Growing Globally? Lecture with Frieda Afary
Many thanks to the European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine (ENSU), which advertised a new article by Terrell Jermaine Starr, who is an interesting writer and activist.
Charlie Kirk wasn’t only a racist, he was a reliable pro-Putin talking head who repeatedly spread disinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.In my latest Substack piece, I explain why his white nationalism was so useful for Russian propaganda. #ukrainianview
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s military has raped hundreds of women (that are documented but like its many more), kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, killed thousands of civilians in cities far from the frontlines, internally displaced millions, and forced millions more to flee their homeland into Europe and other countries during his invasion of Ukraine, which is now approaching its fourth year.
Documentation of war crimes were clearly established in the first few months of the war. But you wont’ know these details is you listened to Charlie Kirk’s statements about Putin and Ukraine.
In February 2023, Kirk said that Putin “has shown and demonstrated some extraordinary restraint” through all of this. Really? Living in Ukraine through nightly air strikes on civilians, I don’t see the restraint.
Few MAGA voices carried Putin’s water more effectively than Kirk. In the same broadcast on his show, he called Putin a “thug” the U.S. should oppose, but also described him as a “soft ally within the broader global picture.”
Long before the full-scale invasion, Kirk spread Russian talking points about Ukraine. In 2019, he tweeted, “Barack Obama asked Ukraine to investigate his political rival’s campaign manager, 3 Democrat senators asked Ukraine to investigate Trump, and the DNC solicited Ukraine’s help to dig up dirt on Trump, and the media was silent about all of it.”
The diverse group that have been protesting outside the Russian embassy on Orwell Road since February 2022 will be holding an event outside the embassy on Tuesday,September 16 commencing at 3pm.
The event is to mark the passing of 1300 days since the start of Russia’s illegal full scale invasion of Ukraine.
It will comprise a number of invited speakers and some music and song. All are welcome to attend.
Poster advertising the event :
Readers are invited to circulate this blog post and poster to contacts and networks.
To: The European Commission, the governments of European Union Member States and the United Kingdom
After US president Trump’s “summits” with Putin (August 15) and European leaders (August 18) Ukraine confronts the appalling prospect of an unjust “peace” settlement that rewards the Russian aggressor.
If forced on Ukraine, it will legitimise:
The violent Russian occupation of a fifth of Ukrainian territory and the swap to Russia of territory and people presently under Ukrainian administration
The destruction of Ukraine’s towns, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, environment and heritage
The murder of tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens and the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, and
The genocidal Russification of the occupied territories, and a host of other war crimes.
It will also place the burden of ending the war not on aggressor Russia but on Ukraine, its victim–even as the Putin regime steps up its bombardments of Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure.
Two fascist gun-slingers : convicted rapist President Donald Trump (USA) and indicted international war criminal Vladimir Putin (Russia), embraced in Alaska. The USA grabbed Alaska in the 19th Century through a deal with Russia, its imperialist partner-in-crime. Uncle Sam took over the vast icy territory through the ugly and brutal method of ethnic cleansing. Civilised people hoped this ugly feature of international capitalism was a thing of the past. Wishful thinking : it is returning with ominous force in the 21st Century – especially in Ukraine and Palestine.
Volodymyr Zelensky was a target of the Alaska fascist-fascist war-crime plan. The President of Ukraine was summoned to the White House (Washington DC). A charade was staged.
Leaders of the main imperialist powers in Western Europe saw a car-crash coming : On the one hand they were opposed to witnessing Zelensky crushed by the fascist-fascist Trump-Putin steamroller, and they did not want to be accomplices to an infamous surrender. Haunting memories : the pathetic 1938 British Imperialist leader Neville Chamberlain came back from a Munich summit with the Nazi warlord Adolf Hitler – “peace in our time” said Neville, as the people of Czechoslovakia and its leader Edvard Benes were sacrificed. One year later – “peaceful” Herr Hitler invaded Poland, World War Two began.
On the other hand Macron of France, Merz of Germany – and company – wanted to avoid a direct and open clash with the White House gangster, Putin’s ally Trump. Therefore, observers were offered a charade : One after another Zelensky, Macron, Merz, Von der Leyen, Meloni, Starmer, and Rutte smeared the vain gangster Trump with praise.
The headline-writers of the Irish Times did a great job summing up a Keith Duffy account of the 2025 Trump-Putin Anchorage Alaska summit.
“Nauseating charade as Putin comes out of international purgatory on Trump’s red carpet” – Eleven words sum up an Alaskan summit
Irish Times Story headline, August 16 2025
Popular opposition to a fascist-inspired attack on Ukraine is spreading, but will it be enough to prevent a disaster on the European continent? At the time of writing a Washington DC meeting pits Donald Trump against the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will be accompanied by several powerful European leaders such as Macron of France and Merz of Germany.
While the big European powers back Ukraine in words, there are major doubts over their ability or willingness to back Ukraine in practice. It is clear to all observers that the Trump-Putin policy is anti-Ukraine – yet the European leaders, and President Zelensky, refuse to resist Trump.
A Financial Times editorial (August 17 2025) sums up the position well :
European leaders will be tempted to celebrate Trump’s support for European security guarantees for Ukraine as a diplomatic advance and proof of enduring transatlantic co-operation. But it will count for little if the proposed deal is tantamount to Ukraine’s capitulation.
The picture may be more clear after the Trump-Putin appeasement plan is unveiled in the White House to Zelensky and the leaders of the main European states today (August 18 2025).
An Irish Times Editorial (August 17 2025) does a service to its readers :
which gives readers interested in the dirty history of capitalist genocide in many parts of our globe – Palestine, Ukraine, Ireland, Australia, the United States of America – tells us why all people who identify with the left must oppose today’s “Nauseating charade as Putin comes out of international purgatory on Trump’s red carpet” (Keith Duggan, Irish Times, August 16 2025).
No Deals with War Criminals on Alaska Soil
Aug 14
Anchorage, Alaska – As President Donald Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, Native Movement stands with Alaskans and those across the country who condemn any attempt to legitimize Russia’s war crimes on Alaskan lands.
Alaska knows the cost of Russian imperialism. For over a century, Russian colonizers stole and exploited land, decimated Alaska Native populations through violence, disease, and enslavement, and erased cultures with religious supremacy. Today, we see the same imperial playbook in Ukraine: annexation of territory, targeting of civilians, and the forcible deportation of over 20,000 Ukrainian children—a war crime under international law.
Alaska’s history with Russian rule doesn’t make us neutral — it makes us witnesses.
The decision to host Putin, a war criminal, on Alaskan soil is a betrayal of our history and the moral clarity demanded by the suffering of Ukraine and other occupied peoples.
Native Movement voices opposition to any deals that force Ukraine to cede territory, reward aggression, or silence the voices of those whose lives are at stake. We stand against the rise of fascism and violent occupation everywhere—whether in Ukraine, Palestine, or here in Alaska. None of us are free until all of us are free.
Alaska’s own experience with resource-driven governance shows how oil wealth erodes democracy and empowers authoritarianism, just as we see in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Hosting war criminals in Alaska is a betrayal of our communities and our future.
Ukrainian refugees in Alaska have mixed feelings about US and Russian leaders’ meeting
Amy MacKinnon, Anchorage Alaska, Financial Times, August 15 2025
“On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of local residents rallied in support of Ukraine at an intersection of Anchorage’s East Northern Lights Boulevard, waving the country’s blue and yellow flag. A small brass band played Bella Ciao, the Italian folk song adopted by the anti-fascist resistance during the second world war. Passing cars honked their horns. “They are trying to make decisions, agreements, without Ukraine being involved,” said Anna Koraa, who moved to the US from Ukraine in 2019. Her mother, Olena Lazar, left Zaporizhzhia — one of the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims, but does not fully occupy — and came to Alaska shortly after the war began. Lazar is deeply sceptical about Friday’s talks. “He won’t stop until he takes all of Ukraine,” she said of the Russian leader.”
⚡️Pro-Ukrainian protest held in Anchorage ahead of Trump-Putin summit.Pro-Ukrainian demonstrators took to the streets in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 14 ahead of a planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin the next day.
This is a conversation between John Meehan and Paul LeBlanc in Dublin on Friday, the 20th of June, 2025.
Paul Le Blanc has for many years been a teacher and activist in Pittsburgh. His writings include “Lenin and the Revolutionary Party” [1990; new ed. 2015]
Last weekend (Saturday June 14 2025) a large number of “No Kings” protests occurred in many parts of the United States. One participant was Paul LeBlanc. Would you like to give us an overview of the No Kings protests, describe the one you attended?
Paul Le Blanc: Sure I can speak especially about my own experience in Pittsburgh and in other cities and towns across the country.
The “No Kings” demonstrations were part of a wave of demonstrations that have developed over the past few months. The first big one was the April 5 demonstration, under the slogan of “Hands Off.” Hands Off the health care system, education system, various other things that are being dismantled or attacked by the Trump regime. In Pittsburgh, there was a massive demonstration. It was the largest that I had seen in the city up to that time, 8000 people minimum.
This was followed by May Day demonstrations. And Pittsburgh is not and hasn’t for decades been a centre of May Day demonstrations. But this was massive, the biggest May Day demonstration that I’ve seen. It wasn’t quite as big as April 5, but there were several thousand people participating. Again, it was focused especially on social issues and economic issues in the United States. There was also some reference to foreign policy stuff — Palestine, Ukraine, so forth.
The biggest demonstration of all was the most recent, the “No Kings” demonstration. There were over 10,000 people protesting in Pittsburgh, and millions of people throughout the country: a massive outpouring of anger and rage and ridicule of Trump’s pretensions of being popular and powerful and so forth. People said “No Kings,” with many accusing him of being a fascist, a totalitarian, a dictator. Certainly, he’s authoritarian. There was general agreement on a defence of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and even of the US Constitution, which he’s walking all over.
So, this was massive, and pro Trump elements have not come close to mobilising anything on this scale. There’s a lot of anti-Trump sentiment. Trump claims that he has an overwhelming mandate from the American people, and that’s a lie. He tells all kinds of lies, makes all kinds of distorted claims. He did not get a majority, certainly not a landslide majority. He was able to rack up more votes than his competitors. But his mandate is razor thin, and I think the number of people who support him is dropping. I believe that he is eroding his own base of support with policies that are hurting all of us. It’s an interesting development, for sure.
The purpose of the meeting is to raise money for the work of the Samantha Smith Group charity project. The project deals with a very important job: organizes free online English lessons for Ukrainian refugees.
Learn more about the life of the project here.
How does charity work?
We get together at the pub and enjoy hanging out, playing board games or just hanging out. At the entrance we pay for a ticket for 10 euros (or buy tickets in advance in the header of Samantha’s profile). All proceeds will go to support the project.
Even if we get 10 people, the project will be able to pay for its site for a whole year, so even a very small contribution can be significant!
This is a low risk event, we will not be photographing participants.
So come on out and bring your friends!
See you on June 29 at 15.00. At Black Sheep Pub!
P.S. If you have cool tables at home – bring them, we will definitely try
Irish Left With Ukraine co-operates with Free Russians Ireland.
Irish Left With Ukraine, Return Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire DublinDes Dertwin speaks, Return Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire DublinReturn Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire Dublin
Tomás Ó Flatharta 