This is a serious, well documented and well argued.
Much, much appreciated, thank you.
What is amazing is how people who see themselves as serious progressives have swallowed Russian propaganda hook, line and sinker.
In Canada I have lost friends who think NATO provoked Russia’s invasion, blaming the victim for the agression.
Some of their justification is a simple hatred of the USA, a hangover from America’s war on Vietnam, they believing (blindly) that somehow the USA and this NATO (and Western Europe) are always the wrong, always to blame.
Now with the Trump-Putin alliance they are silent or falling back on arguments that Putin made four years ago that Russia is liberating Ukraine from The Nazis.
I wrote an article in a Canadian journal in response to a progressive Canadian professor who was taking this line.
It is three years old but is still relevant I think:
One does not have to be a "campist" to oppose the Ukrainian government's attempt to rip up the autonomy of Donbas - or indeed to oppose its irredentist claim on Crimea.
We can and must uphold Ukraine's right self determination at the same time as recognising that Ukraine itself is fighting against the right of self determination within and beyond its borders.
I remain firmly of the view that the working class movement should oppose both sides in this fratricidal conflict.
1. Richard writes as if 'autonomy' for Donbas is something that was agreed. How can something have been ripped up? But that's not the case. Prior to the Russian intervention in 2014, the Donbas was not an administrative unit with any agreed level of autonomy.
2. Crimea was within the Ukrainian SSR and then became part of independent Ukraine after 1991. To claim that Crimea is not part of Ukraine is like saying Trieste is not part of Italy.
Autonomy was agreed at Minsk. Polls conducted by agencies including in the US and Ukraine showed the same result: low support for separation, low support for integration in a unitary Ukraine, low support for joining the Russian Federation, high support for regional autonomy within Ukraine.
As for Crimea, I am sure you know that it was arbitrarily assigned to the Ukrainian SSR by Khrushchev in 1954. The majority of its inhabitants are Russians and Ukrainians have always been a minority. One need not endorse the Russian operation in 2014 or the way in which the referendum was conducted to recognise that the freest vote imaginable would have delivered a similar result.
In any event, Marxists are committed to the right of nations to self determination. There is a very simple answer, which is to ask the people of both regions what they want.
Finally, your objection to my description of this as a fratricidal war is revealing. Ukrainian and Russian workers should unite, not fight one another. No?
Any claim about what a fully free referendum would have produced is speculative: the Minsk agreement was extorted by Russia after its intervention, and they almost immediately abandoned it in the battle for the airport.
Ukrainian defenders and Russian invaders are not brothers. One is the army of the colonial oppressor; the other is the semi-colonial oppressed nation.
As for Crimea being occupied by Russians: Is Riga part of Russia too?
This is a serious, well documented and well argued.
Much, much appreciated, thank you.
What is amazing is how people who see themselves as serious progressives have swallowed Russian propaganda hook, line and sinker.
In Canada I have lost friends who think NATO provoked Russia’s invasion, blaming the victim for the agression.
Some of their justification is a simple hatred of the USA, a hangover from America’s war on Vietnam, they believing (blindly) that somehow the USA and this NATO (and Western Europe) are always the wrong, always to blame.
Now with the Trump-Putin alliance they are silent or falling back on arguments that Putin made four years ago that Russia is liberating Ukraine from The Nazis.
I wrote an article in a Canadian journal in response to a progressive Canadian professor who was taking this line.
It is three years old but is still relevant I think:
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/correcting-mandel-why-arming-ukraine-is-the-road-to-peace
That's a really useful article David. Thanks for sharing it.
One does not have to be a "campist" to oppose the Ukrainian government's attempt to rip up the autonomy of Donbas - or indeed to oppose its irredentist claim on Crimea.
We can and must uphold Ukraine's right self determination at the same time as recognising that Ukraine itself is fighting against the right of self determination within and beyond its borders.
I remain firmly of the view that the working class movement should oppose both sides in this fratricidal conflict.
1. Richard writes as if 'autonomy' for Donbas is something that was agreed. How can something have been ripped up? But that's not the case. Prior to the Russian intervention in 2014, the Donbas was not an administrative unit with any agreed level of autonomy.
2. Crimea was within the Ukrainian SSR and then became part of independent Ukraine after 1991. To claim that Crimea is not part of Ukraine is like saying Trieste is not part of Italy.
3. This is not a fratricidal conflict between Ukrainians. This is a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Look at the deaths in Ukraine: most of those who die are killed by Russian invaders. https://www.reuters.com/world/civilian-casualties-ukraine-up-sharply-2025-un-monitor-says-2026-01-12/
Autonomy was agreed at Minsk. Polls conducted by agencies including in the US and Ukraine showed the same result: low support for separation, low support for integration in a unitary Ukraine, low support for joining the Russian Federation, high support for regional autonomy within Ukraine.
As for Crimea, I am sure you know that it was arbitrarily assigned to the Ukrainian SSR by Khrushchev in 1954. The majority of its inhabitants are Russians and Ukrainians have always been a minority. One need not endorse the Russian operation in 2014 or the way in which the referendum was conducted to recognise that the freest vote imaginable would have delivered a similar result.
In any event, Marxists are committed to the right of nations to self determination. There is a very simple answer, which is to ask the people of both regions what they want.
Finally, your objection to my description of this as a fratricidal war is revealing. Ukrainian and Russian workers should unite, not fight one another. No?
Any claim about what a fully free referendum would have produced is speculative: the Minsk agreement was extorted by Russia after its intervention, and they almost immediately abandoned it in the battle for the airport.
Ukrainian defenders and Russian invaders are not brothers. One is the army of the colonial oppressor; the other is the semi-colonial oppressed nation.
As for Crimea being occupied by Russians: Is Riga part of Russia too?