A war is raging in the Middle East, with Israel continuing its genocide in Gaza and destroying Lebanon. Together with the US they are reducing Iran to rubble. Yet there is another ongoing war closer to London. Just 1500 miles away lies Kyiv, which like other cities in Ukraine, is living under the equivalent of the London blitz of WW2. But it is not US imperialism that is pounding Ukrainian cities and destroying civilian infrastructure: it is Russian imperialism.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year. Despite the terrible loss of life, the displacement of millions of people and the destruction of cities, the Ukrainians keep on resisting the Russian imperialist onslaught. Their resistance has prevented Russia from making any significant gains since the first months of 2022. Russia has suffered more than 1.25 million casualties, of which about 325,000 are deaths, twice as many than Ukraine. Russia has suffered more casualties in Ukraine than any war it conducted since WW2. The Soviet Union lost 20,000 in 10 years of war in the 1980s in Afghanistan, which contributed to the collapse of the country. Now Russia endures over 30,000 deaths each month.

Despite this, Putin continues with his “special military operation” because it is an existential question for him. Putin has been unable to achieve victory while Ukraine is still undefeated. The prospects of Russia ceasing its “special military operation” are at the moment slim. It would depend on an economic collapse or fractures in the regime. Both are possible but not in the immediate future. Citizens who publicly oppose the war receive heavy prison sentences or are in exile.

Putin’s false arguments

This war is motivated by Putin in similar terms to those heard emanating from Israel to justify its occupation/annexation of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of its people. For Putin Ukraine has never really existed; it is in fact Little Russia which has belonged to Russia for centuries. There was an imminent danger to Russia from Ukraine (backed by NATO) with its Nazi government. These arguments hide what is nothing more than an imperialist attempt to control land and resources. He wants to impose a change of regime to one that would be loyal to Moscow’s interest, just like Washington does in Central and Latin America and further afield.

The Ukrainians are resisting because for them it is existential. They want independence and national sovereignty. They do not want to live under the “iron heel” of Putin’s far right, brutal dictatorship. They want peace, but it cannot be by a unilateral ceasefire which would allow Russia to complete the invasion and “Russify” the country. That is what it is doing in occupied Ukraine where the remaining Ukrainians have to take a Russian passport if they want to access health care or receive their pension. The Russian curriculum is taught in schools. Russians are given financial incentives to settle in the territory, changing the demography. Over 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported, many are placed in Russian military training programmes. Any political defiance of the Russian authorities is harshly repressed with a decade or more in prison.

Putin has rejected every 30-day unconditional ceasefire offered by Ukraine for peace negotiations. Instead, a greater barrage of drones and missiles hit Ukrainian cities on the eve of talks. Putin is also targeting energy infrastructure, just like the US and Israel in Iran. Putin’s conditions for peace are that Ukraine cedes to Russia territories not yet occupied, reduces the size of its army, does not have international ceasefire observers and does not join NATO. Conditions which are tantamount to a capitulation.

Trump wants to make a deal with Putin

As the war drags on, the support for Ukraine by the West, and the US in particular, is waning. Trump clearly wants an end to the war with a partition of Ukraine to acquire its resources and restore trade links with Russia. Some in Europe were never keen as they depended on Russian fossil fuels or did not want to withdraw their investments.

A new situation has now erupted with the war against Iran, the destructions of the oil and gas fields and the closure of the straits of Hormuz. The price of fossil fuels has shot up, providing Russia with an unexpected boost in revenue to finance the war. Trump has proposed a “temporary” lifting of sanctions on Russian oil now on ships to ease the global price of oil. The Belgian Prime Minister calls for the EU to normalise ties with Russia. And yet the people of Ukraine carry on resisting the invasion of their country, and also the neoliberal measures of the Zelenski government. The trade unions and the left mobilised in the streets last summer to defeat the restructuring of the anti-corruption organisations, and they are now fighting reforms of the labour laws.

Even before the war against Iran, there was a big push for the remilitarisation of NATO countries. Liberals argued this was necessary to defend western “democracy” against the Russian threat. Countries in the east of Europe are threatened by Russia. This has led Sweden and Finland to join NATO after years of popular opposition. But the actions of the US and Israel in the Middle East, backed by Starmer, has dramatically increased the push for remilitarisation, and emboldened Putin to carry on with his own war against Ukraine.

The solidarity we need

This new situation changes nothing for the solidarity that Ukrainians still need in their resistance against Russian imperialist aggression. This has to be done while opposing the remilitarisation of Europe and supporting countries resisting imperialist annexation, whether it is Ukraine or Palestine. Without increasing the defence budget, weapons can be supplied to Ukraine instead of sending them to the Saudi Arabian dictatorship or the genocidal government of Israel. Just like Spain, Britain should stop its bases being used by the US for “defensive” attacks on Iran. In these difficult times for Ukraine, there can no let up on the sanctions against Russia. The debt of Ukraine should be cancelled and Russian assets confiscated for a socially just reconstruction.

Ukrainians in Britain should be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, something the Starmer government is resisting as it pushes anti-migrant policies that pave the road for the far-right Reform UK. There is huge support for the people of Ukraine in their fight for independence. It must be turned into real pressure on the government so it does not abandon Ukraine, and into solidarity with the Ukrainian left and trade unions. They are fighting on two fronts: against Russian occupation and the Zelenski neoliberal reforms.

What you can do to support Ukrainians

• Circulate the Joint statement by UK trade unions in solidarity with Ukraine (https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/joint-statement-uk-trade-unions-solidarity-ukraine)
• Affiliate to the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in England & Wales (https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/), or the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland (https://www.facebook.com/USCScotland).
• Support the Petition to Parliament for Independent Leave to Remain for Ukrainian refugees (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/751548)
• Develop links with trade unions and the left in Ukraine such as the KVPU trade union federation (kvpu.org.ua/en/), or the left Social Movement (Sotsialnyi Rukh) political organisation (https://www.facebook.com/social.ruh/).
• Follow international solidarity news and actions at ENSU, the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (https://ukraine-solidarity.eu/).
• Join the Eastern European bloc on the Together Alliance demonstration, Saturday 28 April. The bloc assembles 12 noon in Deanery Street off Park Lane (https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2026/03/13/eastern-european-bloc-against-the-far-right-march-with-us-in-london-on-28-march/)

Stop the war on Iran!

Russian troops out Ukraine!
Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance!