The events of the last few weeks have shown that the “rounds of negotiations” in Saudi Arabia and Turkey under the auspices of Trump’s “peacemaking”, which were openly welcomed by the Ukrainian government and, with delays and conditions, by the Kremlin, were yet another maneuver to continue the double imperialist aggression against Ukraine. It is taking place on the part of Putin, who has continued and intensified the bombings with tragic loss of lives and destruction, and on the part of Trump, with his increasingly harsh demands for the colonial subjugation of Ukraine. As we have already seen, Trump is not a “mediator” seeking peace. He is a new aggressor who blackmails in order to plunder, while Putin continues to kill and destroy.
By Tarás Shevchuk
As part of his election campaign, Trump declared that he would “end this war in 24 hours” upon taking office. In other words, this demagogic boast could only be achieved through Ukraine’s capitulation. That is why, once he became president, he changed that deadline to “100 days.” And this is the direction of Trump’s proposal for a “temporary ceasefire,” which emerged after the embarrassing episode with Zelensky in the White House. Trump sought the Ukrainian government’s acceptance of the proposal. And only then did he bring it up in his telephone conversation with Putin[1].
As we said: “The Kremlin’s initial response was slow and, in summary, was: ‘In principle we agree… but there are details on how to implement it.’ These ‘details’ were spelled out by Putin at a press conference. There he made it clear that he would make any possible ceasefire conditional on Ukraine not being able to strengthen its troops and weapons, receive foreign aid, or share intelligence.”
What are Trump’s real goals in this much-touted “peacekeeping” effort?
The answer lies in his global struggle to maintain U.S. imperialist hegemony, which is trying to recover from its decline under the famous slogan “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). The rising imperialist power of China is at the center of his strategic obsessions. And the trade war threatens to escalate to political-military levels over a wide geographical area. The deployment of more U.S. troops in Panama to “guard the canal” and China’s “naval exercises” in the Taiwan Strait are just a few examples.
The uncertainty and destabilization generated in the world’s major financial centers after the declaration of a “tariff war” against everyone and the subsequent “90-day pause” in its implementation “except for China and other countries” has also deepened the social and political crisis in the U.S., with mass mobilizations in almost every city in the country reflecting the majority rejection of Trump and his MAGA. In these demonstrations of the broadest social sectors and diverse national origins, many Ukrainian and Palestinian flags were seen. Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are seen by more and more broad sectors of the masses as the main causes of their misery. And this indignation is also being expressed in Ukraine.
However, Trump has other immediate goals in his rapprochement with Putin: the needs and plans of Zionism in the Middle East. Netanyahu is pushing to neutralize Iran in the face of Israel’s genocidal strategy against the Palestinian people. That is why Trump is seeking Putin’s commitment to ensure that Iran does not have the nuclear potential to threaten this strategy. And to achieve this, Ukraine is the bargaining chip. Part of the “offer” is Netanyahu’s additional support for maintaining the two Russian bases in Syria, whose permanence after the fall of Assad is in question.
It is no coincidence that Zionist Steve Witkoff – who was Trump’s negotiator for the Gaza ceasefire – traveled directly to St. Petersburg to meet with Putin and lavishly praised his great intelligence, “because the KGB only recruited the most intelligent” (sic!), before leaving for Oman for the recent negotiations with Iran.
War of attrition: The Ukrainian people are resisting heroically and Putin is struggling to maintain his offensive
Putin began this large-scale war and invasion in February 2022 under the false label of a “special military operation” with the stated goal of “taking Kiev in three days” and overthrowing the Zelensky government. However, the war has now been going on for more than three years, Russian military casualties number in the hundreds of thousands, and losses of military equipment exceed the replacement capacity of the powerful military industry, even though Putin’s regime has geared its entire economy to the invasion and occupation. Russia is financing its war with gas and oil purchased from China, India, and-even with sanctions-most of Europe.
Despite this advantage, the invasion slowed down. It cannot maintain its offensive along the 1,500-kilometer front. And the so-called “second army of the world” has not been able to consolidate its occupation of Ukraine because the Ukrainian army is attacking its rear and the partisan movement is sabotaging it in these areas. Putin has not even managed to occupy all the territory of the four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – which he has already included as an “integral part” of the constitution of the Russian Federation.
That is why, according to intelligence reports, Putin is preparing a new offensive in the summer. To this end, he has increased this year’s draft to 160,000. The increase is intended to ensure that one-third of them sign up to go to the front. These figures show that Putin is not moving towards peace, despite the “ceasefire” promoted by Trump, which he claims is “going very well”.
On the other hand, Ukrainian Defense Forces (FDU) have been holding back the Russian offensive in the east, especially in Donetsk, since the end of 2024. Last August, it began an incursion into the Russian region of Kursk, forcing the displacement of 60,000 troops, in addition to 10,000 North Korean soldiers, who suffered numerous casualties and were withdrawn from the front. In short, after eight months, Putin has not yet managed to completely expel the FDU brigades, despite having announced their annihilation several times… The FDU recently invaded the Belgorod and Bryansk regions on the border with Ukraine to create a buffer zone for the active defense of the Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
Ukraine is on the diplomatic and military defensive-with a population one-third that of the Russian Federation-and the Zelensky government maintains a market economy in the service of oligarchic clans and the colonial dictates of imperialism rather than the needs of defense. However, due to the demands of the war and the correlation of forces of the masses, who demonstrated strong aspirations for independence expressed in the armed forces, it was forced to advance the production of its own air and naval drones and missiles – today accounting for 30% of those it uses – with which it had attacked refineries and oil depots for gas and aviation fuel on Russian territory, hundreds of kilometers from the front. They also destroyed strategic military targets such as Russian airfields, including the Engels base where TU-95 and TU-160 bombers armed with long-range hypersonic missiles are stationed.
Trump’s “partial ceasefire,” accepted by Zelensky, favors Putin
Precisely because Putin needs time and fuel to resupply his military machine, the “partial ceasefire” and rounds of “negotiations” brokered by the U.S. clearly favor the aggressor Putin. Ukraine began to comply with the ceasefire on energy infrastructure. Major Russian refineries and hydrocarbon pipelines are no longer affected. Although it continues to hit military targets and make some tactical territorial gains.
However, Putin continues to bomb and martyr civilians in cities, including targeting kindergartens and hospitals. The recent ballistic missile attack with cluster bombs on the city of Sumy, on the border with Kursk, shows the intention to sow terror and demoralize. This week, negotiations on a “ceasefire for free navigation in the Black Sea” will take place in Turkey, where Russia will present another demand, trying to return to its naval base in Sevastopol. For Ukraine, agreeing to this would be another setback. Its armed forces have managed to destroy almost half of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, forcing it to retreat to its base in Novorossiysk, far from Crimea. Meanwhile, Ukrainian merchant ships have so far found a safe sea corridor in the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria to the Bosphorus in Turkey to reach the Mediterranean
We reject the plans for partition and colonial plunder of Trump and his envoys Witkoff and Kellogg!
As if one needed further proof of the colonialist aims of Trump and the US capitalists, one need only look at the terms of the “agreements” he is proposing to the Ukrainian government. They cover not only the exploitation of mineral reserves known as “rare earths” and uranium, but also the exploitation of gas and oil. And also Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. And in all cases, he demands exclusive control and payment guaranteed in advance, equivalent to the “aid” received during Biden’s term, which Trump already considers as Ukraine’s debt to the USA
On the other hand, Steven Witkoff’s statements on the occupied and annexed territories repeat Putin’s false narrative and justify the partition of Ukraine. And Keith Kellogg – considered by the Kremlin to be a “sympathizer” of Ukraine – has proposed a “solution” for Ukraine’s security “similar to that of Berlin after World War II”. In other words, partition by regions with the presence of troops from Britain, France, and Ukraine in the areas not occupied by Russia.
Trump and his team are recognizing and legitimizing the occupation and annexation of one-fifth of Ukraine! What is even more serious is that the Zelensky government, despite its sovereign rhetoric, is actually participating in this capitulationist policy by continuing to send its ministers to these negotiations, which are a dead end. And the bourgeois opposition, led by the oligarch and former president Poroshenko, is even more submissive.
Among the Ukrainian working class, especially the hundreds of thousands who are armed and fighting on the front lines, sacrificing their lives for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and among many military cadres who have been fighting since 2014, indignation is growing and they reject the capitulationist attitude of their bourgeois political leadership. Demand that Zelensky abandon these fraudulent negotiations!
The EU and the group of “volunteers” seek a piece of colonization
The imperialists of the EU, Britain and the rest of NATO deserve a short chapter of their own. Trump’s blatant disregard for the aggression and occupation of Ukraine and his justification of the aggressor has given an opportunity to the powers that were left out of Washington’s negotiating scheme. The European imperialists today present themselves as “supportive and compassionate”. They present themselves as “the good guys” with a discourse of “supporting democracy against dictatorships”.
But it is clear that the EU and the UK are also taking advantage of the rupture so as not to lose their share of the colonial spoils. Ursula von der Leyden praised Ukraine’s “progress towards its possible integration into the EU in 2030 or perhaps earlier. Despite the expectations raised among the Ukrainian masses for a “better life” with possible European integration, the workers and Ukrainian people have had a bitter experience in these three years and understand better how much they can trust the European governments and what these “advances” Von der Leyden talks about consist of, measured in the laws and measures of the Ukrainian government that have only brought more inequality and social injustice. In the same vein, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte visited Odessa to “express his unwavering support”. In this regard, Great Britain and France stand out, leading the “volunteers” willing to send “peace troops”.
Of course, the “auction” requires the advance of some “aid” in arms-which are now more than vital due to the abandonment of the USA and which already amount to several hundred million euros and pounds. We demand the supply of arms to the Ukrainian resistance and reject the imperialists’ use of it as a pretext for their own rearmament, cutting social spending in their states. And we also categorically reject the presence of imperialist troops, which will not “guarantee security” for Ukraine, but will be used as a “laboratory” for their military cadres in a large-scale war and will create political dependence on the Ukrainian troops.
A class program to resist imperialist aggression
Unconditional support for the demands of the Ukrainian people in resistance: Arms, long-range artillery and anti-aircraft defense! For every city in Ukraine. Solidarity with the Ukrainian working class until Putin’s invasion is defeated. Russian occupiers out of all Ukrainian territory! For the territorial integrity of Ukraine with no annexations!
We reject Trump’s blackmail and colonial plans! We denounce his “peace initiatives” that disregard Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity!
Cancel the entire foreign debt of Ukraine to all imperialist usurers! The people of Ukraine are not debtors! They are creditors of international solidarity and respect for their contribution to the anti-imperialist struggle for freedom! Aid provided in the face of aggression must not be collected as debt!
We reject NATO and the EU with their hypocritical “support”, while they pay for the aggression by buying gas and oil from Putin!
Return all Ukrainians deported to concentration camps! Bring back the thousands of children kidnapped and separated from their parents!
We call on the European and world working class to promote active solidarity with the armed resistance of the Ukrainian working people! The victory of Ukraine will promote the liberation of the peoples of the Russian Federation and the former USSR who are oppressed by the dictatorship of Putin and his satellite regimes! Freedom for all political prisoners of the Putin and Lukashenko dictatorships, especially those imprisoned for opposing the invasion of Ukraine!
We denounce Putin’s covert defenders, now exposed as supporters of the imperialist Trump! Their “pacifist” arguments are not enough to cover up their betrayal of the Ukrainian resistance for national liberation!
Confiscation of all Russian assets and companies and those of the Ukrainian oligarchs who continue to serve the aggressor regime!
Centralization of the economy in the hands of the state, under the control of the workers in the service of national defense! The entire economy and resources of the nation at the service of victory in the war, not the profits of the oligarchs and transnational corporations!
The Ukrainian working class is in the front line, sacrificing its life for the sovereignty and integrity of the country. And in the rear it is making sacrifices to maintain the economy. But to whom do the fruits of this economy and the whole country belong? Whom does the power of the Ukrainian state serve? The oligarchs, connected with the powers that be, who are negotiating with Putin for the division of Ukraine!
We, the workers, will continue to fight for an independent Ukraine! This will only be possible with a workers’ government! In the service of this task and this program we promote the building of an independent political organization of the working class.
[1] https://litci.org/es/trump-y-putin-quieren-repartirse-y-saquear-mas-que-ucrania/?utm_source=copylink&utm_medium=browser
