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.
In weeks months and years to come, people all over the globe will look back at the Russian imperialist invasion of Ukraine and wonder why more people of the left failed to agree with Denys Pilash. Denys is a Ukrainian political scientist, historian, a member of the Ukrainian democratic socialist organization Sotsialnyi Rukh, and an editor at Commons: Journal of Social Criticism. Mearsheimer is a right-wing Professor who works in Chicago.
Professor Mearsheimer (Chicago); Trump-Putin, fascist-fascist twins; Denys Pilash, Sotsialnyi Rukh Social Movement) Ukraine
President Trump says he is working on a “deal” to end the Russia-Ukraine war by hosting a series of meetings between the U.S., European Union, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin is insisting Russia keep areas of Ukraine that it has seized, including the long-contested Donbas region, while Zelensky is asking the U.S. for security guarantees to prevent future invasion by its powerful neighbor. We host a conversation with two political scientists, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Ukrainian democratic socialist Denys Pilash, about the likely outcome of the talks and the roots of the conflict. Mearsheimer says “the sides remain so far apart” when it comes to the possibility of a ceasefire during peace negotiations that “the best outcome would be to settle this war now.” Pilash, on the other hand, says there are still measures that can be taken to pressure Russia to agree to a ceasefire and to secure more favorable postwar terms for Ukraine.
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.
EMERGENCY SOCIAL MEDIA STORM August 14, 2000-2100 Central European Time
2100-2200 Ukraine * 1900-2000 UK * 1500 Brazil * 1400 US/Canada East Coast * 1100 US/Canada West Coast * 2330 India * 0300 (Friday) Japan 0400 (Friday) Eastern Australia*
TRUMP AND PUTIN: HANDS OFF UKRAINE! NO PEACE WITHOUT UKRAINE! NO PEACE AGAINST UKRAINE!
August 10, 2025
Putin and Trump want to reach an agreement at a summit meeting without the main party concerned, Ukraine, in defiance of international law and the right of peoples to self-determination.
Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart in Alaska on August 15, without the Ukrainian president. The latter responded strongly and rightly: “Any decision that is made against us, any decision that is made without Ukraine, is a decision against peace.”
According to the US president, a settlement of the war will include territorial concessions.
“The Ukrainians will not give up their land to the occupiers,” Zelensky added, while Trump spoke of “exchanges of territory”.
Crimea and territories in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts that Putin has declared annexed are occupied by Russian troops in violation of international law.
Occupation is a crime, those who occupy are criminals, and those who support it are accomplices!
Trump is preparing to hand victory to the aggressor after claiming that he would issue an ultimatum to Putin.
No, the era of placing one country under the tutelage of another against its will by decision of the “great powers” is over.
Mobilisation against this imperialist banditry between Putin and Trump and in solidarity with Ukraine must be organised quickly.
French Committee of the European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine (ENSU)
European Network for Solidarity With UkraineGreta Thunberg – Occupation Is a Crime – Ukraine and PalestineIrish Left With Ukraine Demonstration, Dublin Des Derwin, ILWU Activist, DublinUrkainians Demonstrate in Dublin, June 1 2025Practical Solidarity – Aid Goes from Meath in Ireland to Ukraine
Not only in Anchorage, Alaska, but also in Munich, Bavaria, there will be protests tomorrow against the gangster conclave between Trump and Putin. Not by chance at the place where the infamous agreements between Chamberlain and Hitler were signed in 1938, while Czechoslovak Prime Minister Benes was allowed to wait in the hallway…
Thomas Weyts, Ghent, Belgium :
Protest at the American Embassy in Prague, 13th of August. The Czechs know what they are talking about
Statement, Ivana Bacik TD, Dublin Bay South. Labour Party Leader
“‘Since 2014, it is known that Russia has abducted nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children. Protests against this barbaric war crime are occurring all over the world, and Russia’s criminal actions have been condemned in the European Parliament and across EU Member States. I commend all activists who are taking part in protests against Russia’s abduction and deportation of Ukrainan children. I have raised this issue in Dáil Éireann (the Irish parliament) and have demanded that the Irish government takes appropriate action to express the strongest possible condemnation of Russian war crimes.’”
Statement, John Boyle, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO)
“ The INTO endorses the campaign to end the forceful transfer & deportation of Ukrainian children & return them all, ending the enforced Russification process & militarisation”
Statement. Cian O’Callaghan TD Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats (Spokesperson Foreign Affairs)
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is unprecedented, unprovoked and perverse. Putin’s despotic behaviour and war crimes have irrevocably changed the geopolitical landscape and made us realise that we can no longer take peace in Europe for granted. One of the most sinister aspects of this invasion has been the thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken from their homes and brought to Russia. I fully support the protest taking place on International Children’s Day calling for their safe return to their families and their homes.”
Statement, John Lyons, Independent Left, Dublin City Councillor In the three years of death, destruction, hardship and misery endured by the people of Ukraine as a result of the Russian Federation’s illegal invasion of their country, one particularly reprehensible and disturbing aspect of Putin’s war of aggression and annexation is the forcible transfer of at least 20,000 children and young people from Ukraine into Russia or Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
The Yale School of Medicine has summarised the scale of the crime against humanity involved: “Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine includes a systematic campaign of forcibly moving children from Ukraine into Russia, fracturing their connection to Ukrainian language and heritage through ‘re-education’, and even disconnecting children from their Ukrainian identities through adoption. Children documented by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) range in age from four months to 17 years, and many have families looking for them in Ukraine.”
As an elected representative of Dublin City Council I endorse the overwhelmingly supported May 8 resolution of the European Parliament, demanding the return from the Russian Federation of Abducted Ukrainian children and give my full support to the June 1 International Day of Action in support of this urgent cause.
June 1st is International Children’s Day, a day when people across the world raise awareness of the importance of children’s well-being and the need to protect them from all forms of violence and discrimination. Sadly, millions of children in Gaza, South Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere are having their lives taken, their futures destroyed.
For the children of Ukraine abducted by Russian forces, we must demand their immediate safe return to their families, to their homes and homeland.
Supporters Include : The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) The Labour Party The Social Democrats Party Dublin North City Branch (INTO)
Ivana Bacik TD Dublin Bay South (Leader, Labour party) Duncan Smith TD Dublin Fingal East (Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Labour party) Marie Sherlock TD Dublin Central (Health Spokesperson Labour party) Cian O’Callaghan TD Dublin Bay North (Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, the Social Democrats)
John Lyons Dublin City Councillor (Independent Left) Lesley Byrne Dublin City Councillor (Social Democrats)
Tanya Vyhovsky State Senator, Vermont, USA
European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU)
Individual Personal Supporters Include :
Nóirín Greene (Senior Irish Trade Unionist) Des Derwin, Vice Chair, SIPTU Dublin District Council Tadhg Mac Pháidín, Teachers’ Club (Cumann na Múinteoirí) and INTO Gregor Kerr Dublin North City INTO Joanne Doyle, District 14 CEC Rep INTO Máire English, District 4 CEC Rep INTO Máire Lineen, District 15 CEC Rep INTO Peter O’Toole, District 7 CEC Rep INTO Seán Mullin, Chair INTO Lisburn Branch Sinéad Dowling, Craobh Dhún Laoghaire INTO Feargal Brougham, Dublin North East INTO Joe Duffy, Blanchardstown Branch INTO Caroline Farrell, Dublin Tolka INTO Noelle Moran, ASTI Global Solidarity Committee Kevin Doyle, Irish Writers Union Conor Kostick, Executive member Irish Writers Union James Kearney, Dún Laoghaire Labour Party Spark Deeley, illustrator Paddy Cole, Chairperson, Labour Party Trade Union Group Tracie Tobin District 13 CEC Rep INTO Kate Relihan, Blanchardstown Branch, INTO
June 1 is International Children’s Day. Since 2014 Russia has forcibly kidnapped nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children. Protests against this barbaric crime are occurring all over the world.
These crimes are a reminder of a very dark period in Ireland during most of the 20th century. Child abuse, baby-snatching, illegal adoptions, criminalising of innocent women – Irish “Mother and Baby Homes” and Magdalene Laundries were dungeons of evil where children were tortured.
During that dark period we learned that speaking up and taking public action is essential when crimes like this are drawn to our attention.
Details of Protests to be held in Ireland will be announced here soon.
Supporters of this initiative in Ireland include Ivana Bacik TD, leader of the Labour Party, who has issued the following public statement :
Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party Leader
Since 2014, it is known that Russia has abducted nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children. Protests against this barbaric war crime are occurring all over the world, and Russia’s criminal actions have been condemned in the European Parliament and across EU Member States. I commend all activists who are taking part in protests against Russia’s abduction and deportation of Ukrainan children. I have raised this issue in Dáil Éireann (the Irish parliament) and have demanded that the Irish government takes appropriate action to express the strongest possible condemnation of Russian war crimes.
Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party Leader, Ireland
Crimes of Russia, Kidnapping of Ukrainian Children
The European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine (ENSU) invites all to this Zoom Event on May 30 :
Since 2014 Russia has forcibly transferred almost 20,000 Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland. The true scale of the crisis may be far greater.
On the eve of International Children’s Day, which is celebrated on the 1th of June we want to invite you to a meeting where whe can disscuss in more detail about the crimes of Russia towards Ukrainian children.
Our panelists will include: – Kateryna Rashevska an international law and legal expert at the Regional Centre of Human Rights (https://krymbezpravil.org.ua/), children’s rights activist – Mykola Komarovskyi, lawyer at NGO “Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group” (https://khpg.org/en/), author of one of the KHRPG submissions to the ICC regarding the forced deportation of Ukrainian children
A myth is doing the rounds on the left in Ireland and other parts of the globe that small countries are powerless when they have to fight against imperialist invaders. We suggest readers consult this fine passionate article written by Joxe Iriarte, Bikila, a revolutionary socialist activist from the Basque region (Euskadi) situated in the northern part of the Spanish state.
Ukraine, an invaded country, has managed to defend its independence in this terrible three-year war with great sacrifices against the formidable army of the imperialist aggressor. Of course, this would not have been possible without the supply of weapons from the West, but the main factor has been the courage and great motivation of the Ukrainian people. This is how the Russian left-wing intellectual Ilya Budaitskis refers to Ukraine’s sacrifice.
Economist Michael Roberts states: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a terrible impact on the Ukrainian people. 46,000 civilians and perhaps 500,000 soldiers have died. Millions have fled abroad and millions more have been forced to leave their homes. Kyiv has lost 50,000 workers. Ukraine’s GDP has fallen by 25% and 7.1 million Ukrainians currently live in poverty”.
This is the summary of interventions by Oleksandr Kyselov from Sotsialnyi Rukh in Ukraine to the 18th World Congress of the Fourth International in Belgium at the end of March.
You can read the contribution made by Russian anti-war activist Felix here. You can also see the resolution agreed by the Congress on Ukraine reworked after these interventions here, as well as the position of the minority against which Oleksandr was arguing.
Comrades,
It is a great honor to participate in this World Congress of the Fourth International, a historic organization with global reach. I am grateful for this opportunity.
Listening to the discussions, I was struck by their theoretical depth and attention to nuance—something we often lack. Yet, when it comes to my country, I question the need for such an approach when it seems to be used to reconfirm once established truths. “The main enemy is at home”—so we must expose, confront, and fight. Otherwise, how are we different from the bourgeoisie or reformists?
But reality is not so simple. As much as we may despise Zelensky, for us he is not the same as Putin. And every word spoken here we apply to our lived reality. Ukraine is our home —the only place we unequivocally belong. Some call this a bias, methodological nationalism, or overvaluing one of the many organizing patterns. But don’t others here do the same when projecting their own colonial histories, frustrations with Western powers, and struggles – whether for refugee rights or against arms dealers – onto our fight against occupation?
Tomás Ó Flatharta 