By David Sole
The military situation in the Donbas region is steadily worsening for the Ukrainians. The city of Bakhmut, the scene of fierce fighting for many months between Russian Federation forces and Ukraine’s military, is in danger of being encircled by the Russians. Ukraine has been committing more and more troops and equipment into this hot spot, refusing to withdraw them thus risking a catastrophe.
Bakhmut is a key point in Ukraine’s extended front in the Donbas region. Its fall could open up a general collapse of the heavily fortified area. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his U.S./NATO backers have held up Bakhmut as a symbol of “Ukraine’s defeating the Russian Special Military Operation” that began just over one year ago on February 24, 2022.
With the deteriorating situation for Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut Zelensky has lashed out and fired his top general in the Donbas arena. On February 26 Zelensky announced that the Joint Forces Commander of Ukraine in the Donbas region, Eduard Moskalyov, has been dismissed. No reason was given. Moskalyov had served in his position since March 2022.
Western media have shamelessly lied to the public and pushed Pentagon and State Department propaganda in order to keep public support for this U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia. This has kept anti-war sentiment from getting out of hand as over $100 billion dollars’ worth of weapons have been shipped into Ukraine with the aim of weakening the Russian Federation.
Suddenly the truth cannot be hidden by these subservient media agents of imperialism. A look at a few headlines online on February 28 tell another story. The Wall Street Journal admitted “Ukraine’s forces endure increasingly dire conditions” in Bakhmut. CNBC revealed that “As Russian forces bear down on Bakhmut, Ukraine admits situation there is ‘more and more difficult.’” MSN News graphically reported “Russians tighten noose.”
On February 24 Newsweek magazine ran a lengthy opinion piece by Steven Myers “a former member of the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic policy and the National Security Membership Committee.” Newsweek gave Myers a wide public platform to say “Time to End the War in Ukraine. Mediation Is the Best Answer.”
Nothing Myers says is remarkable – only the fact that he is being allowed to express this opinion at all. For the past year almost no major media has allowed any serious challenge to the “official story” designed to promote and prolong the war. Now that the truth cannot be hidden much longer, some elements in the ruling class here are shining some light onto the true state of affairs. A clear signal that a split is developing among the movers and shakers was the publication of a RAND Corporation report earlier this year which warned against the dangers to the U.S. of a long Ukraine war and explored possible negotiations scenarios.
Opposition is also growing more vocal in some European nations who, as part of NATO, are contributing to the proxy war. The Guardian reported on February 25 that “Thousands of people have taken part in a demonstration in central Berlin to protest against giving more weapons to Ukraine, urging the German government to deescalate the crisis by paving the way for negotiations with Vladimir Putin instead….The organizers claimed as many as 50,000 took part. Similar demonstrations took place in other German cities.”
Demonstrations were also reported in France and Italy. Thousands rallied on February 25 in Milan and in Genoa, where the protest was organized by the Collective Autonomous Port Workers. The workers called for a lowering of weapons and the raising of wages. An organizer was quoted as saying the “conflict in Ukraine did not begin last year [but] in 2014, with the massacre of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass.”
Anti-imperialist organizations across the United States are organizing for March 18 demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and other cities. They are rallying under a broad list of demands linking Ukraine with other anti-racist and anti-imperialist issues. The demands include:
- Peace in Ukraine – Negotiations not escalation
- Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions
- Fight racism & bigotry at home
- Fund people’s needs, not the war machine
- No war with China
- End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel
- U.S. hands off Haiti
- End AFRICOM
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