by Elise Grage and Dave Moore
Over the last several weeks, we have witnessed the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, with more than 150,000 Ukrainians fleeing the country following attacks on Kyiv. As of February 26th, 2022, Russian military convoys are flooding the Russia-Ukraine border after orders to broaden their advance into the country. For some, this situation may appear very new. However, tensions between the two countries have been mounting for nearly ten years, and the current crisis reflects a long-running dysfunctional relationship between the nations.
This attack came shortly after Russia’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, located in the Donbas region of Ukraine, legitimizing the sovereignty of these republics in the eyes of the Russian nation. There has been an ongoing conflict between these republics and Ukraine, dating back to 2014 after a Western-backed coup toppled the pro-Russian government in the region. Citizens in Donbas had widely supported this government due to long-standing cultural and historical ties to Russia. What ensued was an approximately year-long war in eastern Ukraine, with both sides ultimately collaborating to create the Minsk II agreement as a means to end the battle.
The Minsk II agreement, introduced February 12th, 2015, proposed an immediate ceasefire. It was a change in Ukrainian law to grant the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic autonomy, constitutional recognition of their sovereignty, and institute mediation tactics to ensure peace is upheld. While the agreement looked well and good on paper, it did not last. Ukraine continued to attack both republics while denying previously agreed-upon statuses outlined in Minsk II. Unlike Putin’s “official” dismissal of the agreement, these continued aggressions received little media coverage. While this is not to imply that Russia’s brazen act of war is at all permissible, how these powers are contextualized is intentional – there must always be a villain and a victim in war. This characterization intentionally ignores the actual victim: the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Media sources are weaponizing the crisis in order to distract from other ongoing acts of brutality and genocide. The United States recently carried out its first airstrike on Somalia since August of last year, the Palestinian Authority and its resistance against Israel is in a tumultuous state due to lack of economic resources, and all the while the Israeli Security Force continues to carry out mass murder. Also, the United States just passed new sanctions on Yemen. Western media’s sympathy is funneled into white countries deemed “civilized” enough to deserve attention. If white people cannot see themselves in those suffering, it’s as if the people never existed. Even in sympathy, you will find hate.
The bevy of sanctions that have been imposed on Russia is performative attempts at Ukrainian support at best. Sanctions have a historically poor track record, doing little more to exasperate existing tensions while leading citizens to rally around their flag.
Another economic consequence for Russia has been the targeting of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline the country had planned to build going through the Baltic Sea and eventually feed into Germany. Nord Stream 2 would have cut U.S gas companies out of Europe by providing 25% of all European gas. With the pipeline effectively scrapped due to German blockading following the invasion of Ukraine, U.S gas companies will use this as a means to stroll into Europe unobstructed, benefitting from the “morally friendly” image when compared to Russia.
Even with Russia being ejected from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), there are no actual barriers to money moving in and out of the country. The end of this crisis will not come in the form of weak deterrents or half-baked threats from nations that want no stake in the lives and deaths of thousands. Russia’s actions come from the country’s era as a capitalist world power – this attempt to cannibalize surrounding regions is imperialism in its most obvious form. There is a power and profit motive here, meaning there is something to be gained by the bourgeoisie powers that be. The rich will not be those who die in Ukraine, Donetsk, Luhansk, or Russia. We can only hope that diplomacy is reached before it’s too late.
