Ukrainian soldiers in a trench on the front lines in Popasna, Ukraine.
War and Its Consequences: Five Months after the Invasion of Ukraine Editorial Statement
W
ar in Ukraine is now entering its six month. Entire cities such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk have been annihilated. Thousands of civilians and tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides have been killed, whilst probably ten times more have been wounded. Although some have now returned, over eight million refugees, overwhelmingly women and children, have fled abroad. As many again have been displaced within Ukraine. The Kremlin’s hopes that it would occupy the whole country were quickly dashed as it met fierce resistance. It was forced to withdraw from around Kyiv, Chernigov and Kharkiv, to concentrate its forces on Donbas. This is the approximately 400 by 200 km area covering the industrial Donetsk and Luhansk regions in East Ukraine. In 2014 part of Donbas was taken over by the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “peoples’ republics” (DNR/LNR) and since then fighting has continued. Now Russian and Ukrainian forces are fighting over every kilometer of land in a war of attrition that is likely to last for many months, and possibly longer. The war is a product of a new period of growing tensions
between the imperialist powers resulting from the economic crisis, retreat from globalization and neoliberalism and the consequent attempts to redivide global spheres of interest, in other words, areas for exploitation. As the new Cold War between the two major imperialist powers – U.S. and China – deepens, military and diplomatic blocs are being realigned, and regional balances upset. The camp led by the U.S. clearly sees the war as the opportunity to weaken Russia and also as a warning to and dress rehearsal for military conflict with China at a later stage. Russian imperialism has its own aggressive agenda in which Ukraine does not have the right to exist as an independent state. The reality too is that the U.S. and the Western imperialist governments, despite all their promises to the Ukrainian people, see Ukraine as a pawn in their global conflict.
Biden Changes His Tune
Early in the war, feeling emboldened by Russian reverses and NATO’s united response, U.S. president Biden in so many words called for Putin’s overthrow. He and others in the U.S. leadership supported the idea that Russia would be driven out of the whole of Ukrainian territory and decisively defeated.
