While Trump vacillates Julie Ward argues Labour and European states must step up aid and sanctions against Putin’s Russia
Let’s be absolutely clear – Vladimir Putin and others in his administration are war criminals. Not just because of the abduction of more than 35,000 Ukrainian children, their subsequent brainwashing in re-education camps, and their forced conscription into the Russian military, where they are taught how to attack and kill their fellow Ukrainians.
Putin’s war crimes also include the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, the bombing of hospitals and schools, and attacks on markets and breadlines. Meanwhile, the destruction of theatres, art centres, museums, etc, is part of a clear attempt to erase Ukrainian cultural heritage and cultural identity. Those living in occupied territories are forced to speak Russian and to give up their Ukrainian citizenship, adopting Russian passports which are being mass-produced for this purpose. They are also subject to state propaganda spewing from Kremlin-controlled media, and their children are indoctrinated through the imposition of a skewed Russian curriculum, which denies Ukrainian history.
The massacre in Bucha in the early months of the full-scale invasion shocked the world with media footage showing bodies lying in the streets, often with their hands tied behind their backs. By June this year, the Nobel Prize-winning Centre for Civil Liberties in Kyiv had already documented approximately 88,000 potential war crimes since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war in February 2022, including accounts of rape and torture, ill treatment of prisoners and more.
But Russian atrocities against Ukrainians had already been going on for years, notably via the annexation of Crimea and racist attacks on Crimean Tatars, many of whom remain ‘disappeared’ to this day.
Quite simply, all occupations are a crime whether in Palestine or Ukraine. Chartist has been clear from the outset: we stand in solidarity with oppressed people under attack from authoritarian regimes, and support their right to determine their own future.
Along with Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, we are in the business of educating the left about the ongoing struggle in Ukraine, not just the battle to win the war but also the importance of supporting the Ukrainian left in their struggle to build a different kind of country post-war – challenging corruption and oligarchs, ensuring that reconstruction is not in the hands of vulture capitalists.
So what should the Labour government do, especially in the light of a capricious and morally bankrupt Trump administration?
There should be no concessions to Russia; that means more sanctions, including stopping the ‘shadow fleet’. In this respect we should congratulate the Stop Seapeak Coalition for their unstinting efforts to expose the Glasgow-based shipping company whose vast fleet of tankers continue to transport Russian liquified gas. BBC data analysis shows that Russia has made more than three times as much money from exporting hydrocarbons since February 2022 than Ukraine has received in aid from its allies. It is clear that whilst the world’s energy markets continue to facilitate this trade the Russian war economy will remain sufficiently buoyant to keep churning out military hardware, including drones which fill the night skies above Ukrainian cities with increasing regularity.
Russia must be banned from inclusion in international culture & sporting events; the announcement that Russian athletes will be allowed to participate in the Paralympics in Milan, due to be held in March 2026, is an insult to all those who have been injured and permanently disabled by Russian attacks. The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport must speak up about this and put pressure on the IOC.
Starmer’s team must also help strengthen the resolve of like-minded states to step up their military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, especially considering the fickle and unreliable Trump, who seems to be bending an ear to the war criminal in the Kremlin rather than standing with the Ukrainian people. The UK, Canada & other European countries do come together on a regular basis, but their response to date has been woefully insufficient.
It is important to recognise the nature of Russia’s imperialist war against its neighbour – it is a hybrid war which is not just being fought on the ground, in the skies or at sea, by conventional means but also through cyber-attacks, disinformation and by acts of sabotage.
In that sense, the war has already spread beyond the borders of Ukraine, disrupting our lives and threatening our security. Understanding that Ukraine’s fight is our fight is hugely important. It is an existential fight against authoritarianism and fascism, and we need Labour to put clear water between Trump’s shameful attempts at appeasement and our support for Ukraine’s right to self-determination. Ukrainians chose a European path more than a decade ago, which resulted in the Maidan when the corrupt President Yanukovych ordered the military to attack peaceful protesters. More than 100 civilians were killed during this ‘Revolution of Dignity’. This desire to turn away from Russia and embrace a European future is the reason so many Ukrainians from all walks of life continue to sacrifice their lives in the defence of their country and their culture. We cannot let them down.