“We can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to dominate the world and to determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible.”  Bob Avakian

A major escalation of the war in Ukraine may have begun. Massive Ukrainian and Russian armies are clashing with renewed intensity over a 600-mile front in southern and eastern Ukraine. The New York Times reported that Ukraine “has launched the main thrust of its counteroffensive, throwing in thousands of troops held in reserve, many of them Western-trained and equipped …”

The Guardian reported that a “senior Ukrainian official said every available weapons system was being used [by Ukraine] in the battles, including recently supplied US cluster munitions”.¹ This means armored vehicles such as tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, personnel carriers, and combat vehicles used along with military drones and electronic weaponry in the “integrated offensive maneuvers” the U.S./NATO has trained its Ukrainian proxies for.

They are going up against well-entrenched Russian troops. The Russians have spent months preparing multiple layers of extensive mine fields, digging trenches and anti-tank traps, and building bunkers and barricades. Russia has also upgraded its electronic weaponry to counter Ukraine’s advantage in military drones, and developed more precision artillery by turning “heavy bombs from its massive Cold-War-era arsenal into precision-guided munitions capable of striking targets without putting its warplanes at risk.”

Exactly what is happening on the Ukrainian battlefields now is not clear. It seems that even with the long-anticipated introduction of large numbers of specially trained forces and advanced weaponry, both supplied by U.S. and other Western imperialists, Ukraine’s army has not been able to make breakthroughs against the Russian forces.

But one thing IS clear—too many so-called progressive American people are shamelessly buying the ruling class line that the war in Ukraine is a “just war” and that the U.S. imperialists in this case are “the good guys,” and are not going to deeper underlying causes and the extreme dangers this poses for humanity as a whole.

No Backing Down

Russia is fighting to maintain its grip on much of eastern and southern Ukraine, and its control over a “land bridge” to Crimea, a peninsula in the Black Sea that has strategic economic and military significance to Russia. Joe Biden has vowed that the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” without saying specifically what “it” is.

Neither side has given any indication it is ready to change its position. The danger of the war “going nuclear”—whether deliberately, by accident, or by misunderstanding what the other side is doing—is great. Soon after this war began, Bob Avakian wrote:

With each side seriously committed to its objectives, and having become seriously involved in war in pursuit of these objectives (with Russia directly at war in Ukraine and the U.S./NATO now indirectly but deeply involved), this means that, so long as the terms are set by these contending imperialists, neither side can easily back down. (Again, so long as the terms are set by these contending imperialists, and the people, on all sides, do not effectively act, in their masses, in such a way as to force things onto different terms, which are in their interests, in opposition to those of the imperialists on either side.)

Over the last 17 months, tens of thousands of people have been killed in this criminal war between imperialist powers. Thousands more have been maimed and wounded. The homes of millions of people have been damaged or destroyed. The destruction and long-term damage to the environment, and to many cities and towns of Ukraine is staggering. The Economist described much of eastern Ukraine as an area of “destroyed villages … charred trees … forests ravaged by fires … groundwater and soil contaminated by heavy metals and toxic chemicals from detonated munitions; and wild animals killed or driven from their habitat…”.

Now both sides are escalating further. (See Revolution’s “Resource Page, The War in Ukraine and the U.S. Threats Against China,” for more articles on the history and development of this war, featuring numerous articles by Bob Avakian.)

A Peril to Confront … And Transform 

Even as the deadly stalemate on the ground continues, both sides escalated the war in other, equally dangerous ways. The U.S. announced it is sending up to an additional $400 million in weaponry to Ukraine. This includes artillery, mine-clearing equipment, Stryker armored personnel carriers, Patriot anti-missile systems, surface-to-air missiles, aircraft rockets, microdrones, anti-tank missiles, spare parts for damaged weaponry, and ammunition for all this. The Ukrainian government, the U.S.’s “democratic” ally, extended martial law for another 90 days. This prevents men of “fighting age” from leaving the country. It also postponed parliamentary elections that had been scheduled for October.

Russia also continues to “see and raise” escalations by the U.S./NATO and their Ukrainian proxies. The Associated Press reported that “sometime this summer, … Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus,” a Russian ally which borders both Ukraine and several NATO countries. It isn’t clear how many nuclear weapons are now in Belarus, “only that Soviet-era facilities in the country were readied to accommodate them, and that Belarusian pilots and missile crews were trained to use them.” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, recently wrote “the apocalypse isn’t just possible but quite likely...”. He continued that the current crisis is “far worse than during the Cuban missile crisis because our enemies have decided to really defeat Russia, the largest nuclear power...”

Continuation of this gridlocked death match would be horrifically destructive. A major breakthrough by either side, which would put tremendous pressure on the other side to not just retaliate but to raise the stakes even higher, could be even more destructive. This entire situation could erupt at any moment into even more widespread war, and it could quickly spiral into a war that actually includes use of the thousands of nuclear weapons possessed by both sides. Not just the people of Ukraine and Russia, but all of humanity would enter an era of new and unprecedented peril. The need to fully confront, and transform, this peril is urgent.

People need to wake the fuck up about what is happening, the extremely dangerous direction things are headed and what the actual interests of humanity are. For all those who have been supporting the U.S.’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine—you are being played! You are lining up behind the U.S. in its attempt to weaken its imperialist rival Russia while they cynically use the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder. If you're in the U.S., you have a special responsibility to speak out against the crimes of this system, the American empire—the #1 oppressor in the world, responsible for more unjust wars, invasions, coups, torture, targeting of civilians and environmental destruction than any of its imperialist rivals. Making common cause with the people of the world against the imperialists on both sides. And to do so as part of getting organized for an actual revolution to—at long last—be rid of a system that is bringing humanity to the brink of annihilation!

Join the revcoms² on August 6—the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima—to declare:

No U.S./NATO War with Russia!
Stop U.S. Threats Against China!

No World War 3!
It’s This System, Not Humanity, That Needs to Become Extinct!

We Don’t Accept Their Future—
It’s Time to Get Organized for a Real Revolution