Facts versus fabrications

Four years of aggression from Russian Goliath, and Ukrainian David is still standing!

By Yorgos Mitralias

” Who could have foreseen, on 24 or 25 February 2022, that one year later Ukrainians would be subjected to an avalanche of peace and ceasefire proposals from their enemies but also from their friends? The answer is not difficult: practically no one, because everyone, enemies but also friends, did not believe that one year later there would still be an independent country called Ukraine in a position to seriously negotiate anything with the all-powerful Russian Federation. In short, if there is talk of peace today, it is due to the heroic and totally “unforeseen” resistance of the Ukrainian people to the aggression of Great-Russian imperialism, which defeated the initial plans of both sides”. (1)

This is what we have written on February 22, 2023, about Putin’s war against Ukraine, on the first anniversary of the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine. Today, three years and three anniversaries later, although the Russian army is now gaining the upper hand, its first and most substantial lesson remains the same: Ukraine, or rather the Ukrainian people, continue to defy all the initial predictions of both Ukraine’s enemies and “friends,” who bet on its defeat and submission to Russia within a

Western media was ready to declare defeat before the battle had really even started!

matter of days. This was the time when the Kremlin, confident of its triumph, was providing its invaders with… parade uniforms for their imminent Victory Parade in the center of Kyiv. It was also the time when the White House, confident of Ukraine’s inevitable crushing defeat, offered to save its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, by urgently extracting him from the country. His response has gone down in history: “The battle will be fought here, in Ukraine. I need weapons, not a taxi.”

And it must be said that Zelensky’s wish was granted. Ukraine’s Western “friends” sent him weapons, provoking the indignation of Ukraine’s enemies and their sympathizers, who were quick to see this as the cause of the war’s prolongation and its carnage. We agree with them that Western aid to Ukraine has prolonged the war, except that our interpretation of the facts is diametrically opposed to theirs. Here is what we wrote at the time: ” Preaching – in one way or another – the need “not to humiliate Putin”, most of these peace proposals are conditioned by the need of the great Western powers not to cut off ties with Russia, its market and its raw materials. This is why the military aid offered by Western countries to Ukraine is imperceptibly reminiscent of that offered by the countries of “actually existing socialism” to Vietnam fighting against American aggression: enough not to be defeated but not enough to win… ». And we ended up as follows : This is why Western, and above all American, military aid to the Ukrainians has always been given in dribs and drabs, preventing the Ukrainian army from taking advantage of its successive victories around Kharkiv (September 2022) and then Kherson (November 2022), to strike a decisive blow against a Russian army on the verge of collapse.“ (2)

Let us recall the facts once again, for it is always the victors and other ‘amnesiacs’ who rewrite history, including the history of this ”strange” war .“ Here is what we wrote in June 2022, four months after it began: . “Secondly, this war is “strange” because most of those who declare themselves to be in solidarity with the struggle of the Ukrainian people are at the same time opposed to sending weapons that would allow these people to defend themselves in any effective way. In other words, they are in solidarity with them on condition that they cannot defend themselves, and that they are content with the role of… a heroic corpse!

But the “oddities” of this war – which is not a war – are endless. For example, how can we explain the fact – unprecedented in world history – that the two countries at war do not have the same rights and are therefore not fighting on equal terms? That is to say, while one (the aggressor Russia) has the right to have an air force, the other (the defender Ukraine) does not. That one (Russia) has the right to monopolize the sky of the other (Ukraine), while this other – which is in fact the one defending itself – only has the right to be sprayed with bombs and missiles falling from the sky. And also, while Russia can have and use heavy weapons of all kinds and without any restriction, the defending Ukraine can only use “defensive” weapons and no “offensive” weapons. And moreover, while Russia can bombard Ukraine and fire missiles from the Russian and Belarusian territories, Ukraine is expressly forbidden to retaliate by hitting targets inside Russia and Belarus, etc. etc” (3).

The reality is that this trickle of Western weapons to Ukraine has not only failed to save lives (both Ukrainian and Russian), but has instead multiplied and exacerbated the suffering of combatants and civilians on both sides to this day. In short, Western leaders have acted like true criminals, not because they gave weapons to Ukraine, but because they did not give enough. And this for one obvious reason: because their capitalist interests required them to spare and “not humiliate Putin” and his regime.

And what about the “denazification” of Ukraine? Russia’s national security needs? The war in Ukraine, which is nothing more than a proxy war by the West against Russia? Let’s respond to all these “truths” from the Kremlin and its Western supporters by recalling the facts and only the facts. Especially since these are facts established by the Russian government, led by Putin himself! Let’s listen to Putin addressing his compatriots to explain in detail, during his televised address to the nation just hours before the Russian army invaded Ukraine, why he decided to wage war against Ukraine. And as the reader will see, his explanation has nothing to do with the alleged “denazification” of Ukraine, nor with “Russia’s national security needs” threatened by NATO. According to Putin, his war against Ukraine was aimed from the outset at righting a huge historical injustice, one committed by Lenin and his comrades, who he claims were responsible for creating a totally artificial Ukraine out of thin air:

“Bolshevik policy resulted in the emergence of Soviet Ukraine, which even today can be rightly called”Vladimir Lenin’s Ukraine“ . He is the author and architect of it! (…) Lenin’s ideas about an essentially confederative state structure and the right of nations to self-determination up to secession formed the basis of the Soviet state: first in1922, they were enshrined in the Declaration on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and then,after Lenin’s death, in the Constitution of the USSR of 1924 (…) It is very regrettable that the odious and utopian fantasies inspired by the revolution, but absolutely destructive for any normal country, were not quickly expunged from the basic, formally legal foundations on which our whole state was built.”

As for the infamous “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, it is Putin’s most loyal collaborator, his immovable foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who explains to us that this is nothing more than a fabrication aimed at all those who are willing to swallow any of Putin’s lies without protest. For, as he stated during his interview with the very official Tass and Novosti agencies, summarized on December 28, 2023, under the headline “Israel pursues goals similar to those of Russia – Lavrov” by the equally official RT News (Russia Today) channel :“The declared goals of Israel in its ongoing operation against Hamas militants in Gaza seem nearly identical to Moscow’s in its campaign against the Ukrainian government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday.(…) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the end goal of the IDF is the complete destruction of the Hamas movement in all its forms, as well as the elimination of all extremism in Gaza.Lavrov, however, noted that these goals seem similar to “demilitarization” and “den which Moscow has been pursuing in Ukraine since it launched its offensive in February 2022″(5) Needless to say, all these statements, which are so revealing of Putin and Lavrov’s true motives, as well as our articles containing them, have been completely ignored by Putin’s supporters or conveniently ”forgotten” “ until today by Ukraine’s ”friends,” who continue unperturbed to claim that Putin, the oligarch and nostalgic for tsarism, wants nothing more than to resurrect…the Soviet Union.

The conclusion of all these reminders is obvious: both the enemies and friends of Putin and his regime excel at constructing myths and fabrications when it comes to distorting or hiding the reality of the colonial war of extermination and ethnic cleansing waged by Putin’s Russia against Ukraine and its people. It is up to everyone else, to the oppressed and exploited of the world, to restore the truth and, above all, not to leave the Ukrainians as alone as the Palestinians in their existential struggle!

Notes

1. What peace for Ukraine?: https://www.europe-

2. Huit vérités pour comprendre la guerre russo-ukrainienne : https://pour.press/huit-

3. What is this strange war in Ukraine where it is forbidden to “defeat” or “humiliate” Putin?:  

4. Putin: “Lenin is the architect of today’s Ukraine” or how it’s all the fault of… Lenin and the Bolsheviks: https://www.europe-solidaire.

5. Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister: “Israel pursues objectives similar to those of Russia”! : https://oaklandsocialist.