By Tarás Shevchenko
The two and a half hour telephone conversation between the presidents of the USA and Russia was, according to the colossal media coverage, “the longest in the history of relations between the two powers.” Does anyone believe that the essential content of this extensive conversation between these two genocidal men was “peace in Ukraine to save lives?”
Trump himself admitted that they “talked about a lot of things besides Ukraine.” But as more information about the dialogue and press reports – albeit contradictory – from the Kremlin and the White House emerged, one thing becomes crystal clear: in the context of the struggle to maintain global hegemony, both are managing the division and colonial plunder not only of Ukraine. In order to achieve this, they are trying to demoralize the resistance of the Ukrainian people. Closely related to this and very much apparent was Netanyahu’s Zionist plan to continue the Palestinian massacre and to neutralize Iran.
The talks and renewal of U.S.-Russian relations began in Saudi Arabia. This was followed by the theatrical mistreatment of Zelensky at the White House. Subsequently, the U.S. and Ukraine agreed on a proposal for a 30-day unconditional “ceasefire” or general “truce,” pending Putin’s response for its implementation. The Kremlin’s initial response was not long in coming and, in short, was: “in principle we agree… but there are details on how to implement it.” These “details” were explained by Putin at a press conference. There he made it clear that one of his conditions for any possible ceasefire was that Ukraine not being able to reinforce its troops or weapons, nor receive foreign aid or share intelligence data. On the other hand, Russia continues to receive ammunition and troops from North Korea and heavy drones from Iran.
In theory, however, Trump took the proposal that was agreed upon with Ukraine to his publicized phone call with Putin. The press releases issued by the White House and the Kremlin after the talks differed significantly. The Kremlin said that Russia had laid out its previously announced conditions. Trump denied this in a Fox News interview: “Putin didn’t mention anything about Ukraine not getting aid.” Could this be a translation problem?
In the end, Trump and Putin did not agree on a total ceasefire, but only on a step in that direction. And there are other serious contradictions here as well. According to the Russian version, the agreement entailed stopping attacks on energy infrastructure. According to the U.S. version, it entailed stopping attacks on energy infrastructure and other critical infrastructure. This is not a minor detail, because Russia reserves the right to continue attacking what is “not energy” and prevent Ukraine from continuing to hit many refineries and oil pipelines, as it has done with great impact on Russian logistics and the economy. The CNN agency defines this dangerous confusion as “a painfully predictable lesson left by the Trump administration’s first real foray into war diplomacy with the Kremlin. They were hopelessly misled.” Is this true, or is it a deliberate ambiguity on Trump’s part?
If there is one thing the two communiqués have in common, it is that they welcome the rapprochement between the two presidents. And that, at Putin’s suggestion, an agreement was reached to organize an ice hockey match between the teams of the two countries! The only concrete but very modest result was a small exchange of 175 prisoners of war on each side, compared to the thousands that both sides have. And the Russian side added the handover of 23 seriously wounded Ukrainians. Nothing was said about the urgent rescue of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, which is a crime against humanity.
All this sweet talk has been viewed with great suspicion, skepticism, and even outright rejection by large sectors of the Ukrainian people, who are suffering under Russian aggression and occupation. Everyone remembers Putin’s perverse lies and fabrications when he annexed Crimea and invaded Donbass in 2014. Everyone knows very well how he denied until the last moment – and even accused as slander – that he was preparing the invasion in February 2022.
It became clear to the vast majority – in Ukraine and around the world – that Trump is not a “mediator,” but a promoter of the needs and ambitions of the Putin regime. First of all, because he has prioritized negotiations on the present and future of Ukraine with Russia, without the participation of Ukraine. On the other hand, Trump is trying to rehabilitate the war criminal Putin worldwide by refusing to call his regime what it is: an aggressor and an occupier. And this was expressed in the U.S. vote alongside Russia on the statement in the UN General Assembly. Could there be more evidence of imperialist complicity? All these clumsy moves are part of the U.S. struggle with China to maintain its hegemony as it realizes its own decline.
This bitter reality was expressed in the sarcasm of an American analyst who said: “If they sit down to discuss Ukraine and don’t invite Ukraine to the table, it’s because Ukraine is on the menu.” Zelensky’s response was immediate, claiming that “Ukraine is neither a salad nor a compote on any Putin menu.” But everyone understands that his response, with Zelensky’s subservience, is an attempt to soften the humiliating colonial place that Trump has reserved for Ukraine, and that he is only reacting to the consistent indignation of the Ukrainian masses against the open colonialist policy of the USA. Trump began by demanding “50% of rare earths as payment for the aid received.” And now he proposes to “buy the nuclear power plants as a guarantee of security”! In the face of such imperialist brazenness, they are now adjusting the formal aspect of the deal and announcing that Ukraine has been invited to Saudi Arabia next week. There, the U.S. delegation will hold simultaneous negotiations with the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in separate rooms in the same hotel, with Ukraine’s subordinate position unchanged. The crisis elements in the Ukrainian regime are intensifying. There have also been public statements from retired military officers with a lot of authority who denounce the participation in these meetings as a capitulation.
This is nothing new in history and even less so in the history of imperialist capitalism, as evidenced by the Munich Agreements in 1938, where Chamberlain of the United Kingdom, together with imperialist France, accepted that Hitler would annex a region of Czechoslovakia, supposedly to “guarantee peace.” Likewise there was the Hitler-Stalin pacts for the partition of Poland in August 1939, which was followed by the Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin pacts of Yalta and Potsdam in 1945, in which the great powers divided up countries and spheres of global influence.
No military changes after Trump-Putin phone call
On the same night of the phone call, Russia continued to bomb numerous cities across almost the entire territory of Ukraine, including hospitals and critical infrastructure such as in Sumy. Ukraine, for its part, continued to strike key military targets with drones. Of particular note was the attack on an arsenal at the strategic bomber base in the Saratov region. The situation on the front line indicates that Russia cannot impose a decisive military superiority. Despite all Putin’s simulations, it is clear that Russia itself needs a ceasefire as much or more than Ukraine to face a real offensive. That is why it is trying to ensure that the ceasefire negotiations are also aimed at “regaining free navigation of the Black Sea” so that it can return its fleet to the base in Sevastopol. The Ukrainian navy has been forced to retreat far from Crimea to a base in Novorossiysk, in the Krasnodar region, after Ukrainian naval drones sank several ships.
On the other hand, although most of the Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from Kursk, they have now made incursions into the Russian region of Belgorod, which neighbors Kursk. In short, despite all the controversy among military specialists, the Kursk incursion was successful because it managed to remove 60,000 Russian troops from the eastern front in Donbass for 7 months, causing many casualties. Now, with the incursion into Belgorod, something similar is being attempted to protect the strategic Ukrainian region of Kharkiv with a buffer zone.
What has happened so far?
First of all, it is clear that a global ceasefire is not yet under discussion. It is not clear if and when there will be a global ceasefire. Nor is it clear that it will be observed within the agreed timeframe. Even less clear is whether progress will be made toward a lasting ceasefire. Despite Trump’s “campaign bombast” about “ending this war in a day,” and the new 100-day deadline he set when he took office, the war is likely to continue for a considerable period of time.
Our task, therefore, is to continue as we have been doing and with even greater vigor to support the armed resistance of the Ukrainian people, with its workers at the forefront! We will continue to call on all workers’ and people’s organizations in the world to do so. We will continue to defend Ukraine’s right to demand arms from all those who claim to defend its sovereign rights! And we will continue to denounce the Stalinists and Putinists, disguised as pacifists, as accomplices of Trump’s imperialist plans!
Ukraine was not the only item on the “menu” It is clear that the Middle East was discussed during these two and a half hours. Zionism and the U.S. and EU imperialism have long appreciated the complicit role of the Putin regime in this region. Among the genocidaires, they understood and “appreciated” that for a decade Syria represented a safe flank for Israel, due to the support that the Kremlin gave to the Assad dictatorship, which mercilessly massacred the Syrian revolution. Today, Putin is negotiating the permanence of his naval base in Tartus and his air base in Hmeymim, which are a bulwark for the plan of Palestinian annihilation that Zionism is contemplating. That is why Netanyahu wants to win Putin’s favor. Ukraine is a bargaining chip for Zionism so that Russia does not favor Iran becoming a nuclear power. We and all anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist fighters are facing a struggle against the genocidal Trump-Putin-Netanyahu troika. Once again in this region, the supporters of the Putinist camp are exposed as accomplices of imperialism and Zionism.
Echoing Trump’s “casino” language, Putin has “other cards” of interest to declining hegemonic imperialism: the Arctic. Trump seeks to exploit it with Russia, relegating China, which has already declared its imperialist ambitions in the Arctic, to the background. In times of environmental emergency and the melting of the Arctic, these imperialist “ecocides” see only opportunities to plunder oil and gas. That is why the immense Greenland appears on the scene after centuries of oblivion. But the 57,000 inhabitants, a decimated, martyred and impoverished indigenous population, mostly Inuit, of the semi-colonial “autonomous” territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, have aspirations for independence. Opinion polls conducted this year show that 84% of the population want independence. This means that Trump’s plans could provoke resistance that we must unconditionally support in the face of all imperialist predators, including the Danes.
