The Position of the New Democratic Marxist Leninist Party on Events in Ukraine

The Party views events in Ukraine in the historical context of US imperialist efforts to bully Russia using NATO since the fall of the Soviet Union. In this context the Party takes serious note of what US imperialism did to Yugoslavia and later Serbia, and still does to countries of the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America. The Party identifies the conflict in Ukraine as one between the US and Russia, with the Ukraine government as a US proxy.

The Party is of the view that Russia was forced to a defensive position by ceaseless expansion of NATO and US-backed regime change in former Soviet republics. It views the neo-fascist coup of 2014 in Ukraine as the direct source of the current crisis. It notes that the coup government encouraged anti-Russia, anti-Russian activities of its neo-fascist partners, and has been encouraged by the US and NATO to join NATO and the bid to join was heavily encouraged under President Biden since early 2021.

Russia, based on its security concerns, consistently urged Ukraine to abandon plans to join NATO. It also wanted Ukraine to honour the Minsk Protocol of 2014-15 especially in the interest of peace in the predominantly Russian-speaking Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in the Donbas region, which declared independence following the coup. Russia, which recognized the secession of Crimea after a referendum, refrained from recognising Donetsk and Luhansk Republics in the interest of peace. Increased provocation since early 2021 in breach of the Minsk Protocol and assertion of will to join NATO precipitated a crisis leaving Russia with four options:

1. Do nothing and let Ukraine to join NATO

2. Persuade Ukraine diplomatically or by threat to give up on NATO

3. Invade Ukraine if it joins NATO.

4. Launch a pre-emptive attack.

The first meant surrender to US imperialism. The second pursued since 2014 proved futile. The third would be too late and too costly in lives. Thus Russia had no choice but launch a pre-emptive strike, without which it would have faced slow strangulation by US using NATO.

The party recognises as genuine Russia’s concern about encirclement by NATO in the context of actions by US imperialism and about US intentions in Ukraine. The Party supports the desire of the majority of Ukrainian people for peace, and warns against viewing the issue as Russian expansionist aggression or as rivalry of two superpowers to capture a piece of land.

The Party is clear that Russia is capitalist and does not endorse Putin or capitalist Russia. It only defends an inevitable response of a state facing rising threat from the US on several fronts, most crucially the military front. The Party thus strongly urges an early end to the conflict based on:

1. Neutrality of Ukraine with assurance of its not joining any military alliance that could threaten Russian security;

2. Ukraine’s acceptance of the freewill of the people of Crimea to rejoin Russia, while the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics are monitored by a joint Russia-Ukraine administration for a limited period to let them decide their future based on their right to self determination;

3. Russian assurance that it will not intervene in Ukraine subject to Ukraine’s protection of the rights of Russian speaking minorities against neo-fascists and the ‘far right’;

4. A Russia‒Ukraine peace accord free of meddling by US imperialism or its agencies.