On Background
200 days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his "Special Military Operation" to complete the conquest of Ukraine he started in 2014 with the occupation of Crimea, and the militarization of much of the Donbas region in the East. It has been a catastrophe for Ukraine and its people. Russia has targeted civilian structures with long range weapons, and murdered civilians up close and personal, dumping their bodies into mass graves, or just leaving them to rot on the streets. It has deported millions of Ukrainians to unknown fates inside of Russia, while it burns the Ukrainian wheat it can't steal. All of this is part of a program to liquidate Ukraine as an independence nation, and annex its territory and people into a new Russian empire, just as Putin
outlined more than a year ago. For Russia, it is
a war of genocide.
This war hasn't gone well for the Russians either. The very Ukrainian nationalism Putin claimed had no right to exist, and the Ukrainian unity, he claimed could never exist, have risen up as a mighty fist to smack him down! Much of the world, especially its European neighbors, have rallied to its defense as well.
The Russians started out with a grand scheme to conquer the whole country by taking and occupying its capital—until their 40-mile long armored column got decimated on the road to Kyiv. Then Putin claimed they had more limited goals all along—just parts of Ukraine in the South and the East—leaving what remains of Ukraine—for now—a land-locked country—if possible. So, they abandoned the attempt to take Kyiv and concreted their forces in the South and East, where they have managed to gain very little ground in return for great loss of life on both sides. Frustrated by their lack of success against the Ukrainian armed forces over these many months, Russia has take to pounding Ukrainian civilians with every available asset, threatening the world food supply, and now even using a Ukrainian nuclear power plant to threaten Europe.
Current Events: The Russian position is collapsing on several fronts
Recently, Ukrainian armed forces have launched its biggest counter-offensive against the Russian occupation. They have met with great success both in the South where the Ukrainian forces are posed to retake Kherson, the only major Ukrainian city taken by Russia, and in the East, north of Kharkiv, where they have pushed panicked Russian soldiers more than 50 miles in two days. They have driven the occupiers from dozens of towns and villages, and liberated over a thousand square kilometers of Ukrainian soil. At that rate, they will have pushed the Russians back across their border north of Kharkiv. Also, two Russian troop concentrations, one north of Kherson, and one centered on Izyum are threatened. [Update: Izyum has fallen! Russians fled without a fight.]
These dynamic Ukrainian advances have been possible because millions of Ukrainians have rallied to the defense of their nation. Many have volunteered for quick training to join the fight, even as Russia tries to forcibly conscript Ukrainians in the occupied territories who were foolish enough to accept Russian passports earlier.
These breakthroughs are also possible because the Ukrainians have benefited from a steady supply of advanced weaponry from the West, especially from the US. While the Ukrainians have done much with the supplies they had accumulated before the war, and with those they have captured from the Russians [which is quite a lot in the current counter-offensive😀], this current reversal would not be possible, in what Russia has turned into a big artillery war, without a steady supply of weapons to Ukraine to meet the challenge. At the same time, sanctions against Russia are denying them the chips & technology they need to build new weapons to support its occupation.
At what is looking more and more like a turning point in a war that many told the Ukrainians was unwinnable, Russia badly needs three things:
- A time-out so its forces can regroup and stop losing territory.
- An end to weapons supplies to Ukraine.
- An end to sanctions against Russia.
Putin can see this, and so can his minions in the West. Hence, Code Pink's newest
"Peace" campaign.
On Friday, Amy Goodman, on Democracy Now, announced the campaign with the
headline:
Antiwar Groups Plan Week of Protests Demanding Diplomatic End to War in Ukraine
On Monday, a coalition of peace activists will kick off a nationwide week of action on Ukraine, demanding a ceasefire and diplomatic solutions to the crisis. CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said in a statement, “The White House and Congress are fueling this war with a steady stream of weapons instead of pushing for talks to end the conflict. That’s why we, the people, have to rise up with a demand of negotiations, not escalation.”
The world saw in Bucha and Mariupol just how the Russians treat the Ukrainians they have conquered. Now that the Russians are fleeing, the people are cheering the return of their soldiers and the Ukrainian flag—now that Ukraine is winning, these "antiwar" groups are calling for a timeout, a ceasefire, and an end to weapons shipments to Ukraine—all items on Putin's wish list.
They talk as if only they want a "diplomatic" end to this war. Ukrainians, more than anyone else, wants an end to this war. The question is: on what terms? Ukrainians are fighting to expel these invaders from their land. Others, like Code Pink, favor giving Russia an even bigger piece of Ukraine, if it will buy "Peace" in Europe for a while. They want Biden & NATO to step in and force Ukraine to accept such a rotten deal. Their demand is that the West stop supporting this war of national liberation, and force Ukraine to give Putin the victory, through "diplomatic" means, that he can't win on the battlefield.
Because Ukraine is now winning this war on its 200th day, Code Pink is launching its own four day campaign to help Putin out. They are calling on activists to contact Congress, the White House & State Department, and the Media, to demand:
- "Freeze the weapons shipments!"
- "that President Biden engage in direct talks with Russia"
This is their two-pronged approach to "peace" in Ukraine. Biden & Putin should divide up Ukraine in the imperialist spirit of Sykes-Picot, and force it down the Ukrainian's throats by cutting off their supply of weapons, because it has become clear that there's no way the Russians can beat the Ukrainian spirit as long as it receives adequate material support.
This is war, and very much a war of logistics and supply lines. So, just to be clear about what is going on here: Ukrainians have been able to advance, in large part, because they have been able to use the HIMARS, and other advanced artillery systems to go after Russian supply lines. Russia is using Code Pink, and these other less "advanced" antiwar groups, to go after Ukrainian supply lines. Code Pink is like Putin's HIMARS, except they keep missing the point.
Clay Claiborne
10 September 2022
UPDATE: 9/10 22:10 PST: I just received an email from the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee:
What you can do now:
Sign our letter demanding your own members of Congress oppose weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Join an action happening in your area or organize your own:
So, apparently now DSA is joining this desperate, last ditch, effort to cut Ukraine's supply lines just as they are engaged in a historic roll-back of the Russian invasion and liberating dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns every day. I would ask: "Which side are you on?," but they have made that very obvious. They are on the side of the Russian imperialists/
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