Flag of Ukraine

As we approach the third anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked all-out invasion of Ukraine, the country’s future is precarious. The stakes could scarcely be higher. The possible implications for Ukrainians are unimaginable. The consequences of a Russian victory would be disastrous, too, for democracy, justice and the climate.

Ukraine’s three years of total defensive war follows a decade of Russian military aggression. Parts of Ukraine under Russian occupation have experienced brutal restrictions on civil, political and labour rights. All across the country Ukrainians are struggling under the heavy toll of continuous fighting. Occupied territories hold millions of stories of untold loss; whole towns and villages have been razed to the ground, and innocent people live under constant terror.

Many of those who have protested occupation have faced barbaric repression in return, including violence, imprisonment and torture, as anyone opposing Russian rule is labelled a terrorist. Russian authorities impose a policy of ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure, banning Ukrainian language, national symbols and traditions. This political and cultural oppression facilitates the exploitation of local resources: water, land and agricultural produce (especially grain that Russia then sells on as its own) are seized to further advance colonial expansion. Without Ukrainian military resistance, alongside the resilience of frontline workers maintaining critical infrastructure during wartime, this reality would already be much nearer to Western European borders.

The need for practical support and solidarity is more acute than ever. We must show that pro-democratic movements have not given up on civilians suffering under authoritarian occupation. Failing to support frontline resistance against Russia’s cultural, political and economic imperialism would set a dangerous precedent: sovereign land can be taken by force.

Yet support for Ukraine among Western governments is wavering. Some political leaders want to cut it off entirely. Most significantly, the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration is determined to foist upon the country an unjust ‘deal’; we cannot yet know its terms, but it could look a lot like a forced surrender. Trump’s instinctive affinity with dictators and ‘America-first’ outlook suggest he will be more than willing to see things from Putin’s point of view.

Meanwhile, Europe is in disarray. On 23 February, Germany may elect a right wing government driven by increasingly violent, paranoid anti-migrant sentiments. Right wing movements appear to be gaining ground across the continent. The loudest voices on the European far-right have adopted an explicitly Trumpist vision that pairs attacks on human rights protections with climate denialism. These far right parties have much in common with Putin’s ideology, and may welcome a rapprochement with his regime.

As socialists, trade unionists and environmentalists, we know that Western governments’ support for Ukraine has always been cut through with a strong vein of cynicism and self-interest. The UK Government, for one, has preached support for Ukraine, all the while using Foreign Office budgets to feed an anti-worker neoliberal agenda into Ukrainian reconstruction planning. Western European capitalists have never had communities’ best interests at heart. We encourage support for Ukraine, while recognising the complex interplay of different motives among different classes.

However, it would be foolish to deny that official and governmental support for Ukraine has been vital. Social, economic and military aid is critical to Ukraine’s survival. Removing it would be disastrous. And the effects would be felt far beyond the borders of Ukraine and long into the future.

What is at stake?

If Ukraine loses its fight, democracy and self-determination will be among the casualties. It will confirm that a critical collective right —to determine one’s future as a community— can be bought and sold.

Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and across Palestine has revealed to a new generation that Western states’ commitment to international law and human rights is fraudulent. The world has seen a military power kill thousands; the mechanisms designed to prevent and punish its transgressions have failed. Now those mechanisms themselves are crumbling, as the US attacks the International Court of Justice and pulls funding from other multilateral institutions. The situation continues to develop at a rapid pace. However, it is already clear that Israel and the US administration jointly intend to continue and maintain the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

Trump’s threats towards Canada and Greenland —insinuating they should be annexed to the USA— echoes the rhetoric of the Russian authoritarian regime. However seriously or not we take these remarks, they constitute a performance of disregard for the democratic wishes of others. It is no surprise that the comments have been eagerly promoted on social media by the Russian state-owned outlet, RT.

For those in smaller and less economically powerful countries, the result is that life becomes increasingly and dangerously vulnerable. And this will only grow more pronounced as the climate emergency worsens.

As the climate crisis progresses, the number of refugees from climate disasters will increase. In every failure to uphold principles of solidarity and justice at an international level, we can glimpse how rich countries in the Global North will respond to increasing waves of migration. By enabling violence and chauvinism to triumph – in Palestine as in Ukraine – the powerful in America and Europe have endorsed a world in which the same tactics can be used in the future.

As the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, put it when addressing COP28: “​We are already seeing it in the anti-immigration policies of rich countries and the rise of the extreme right within them. Hitler is knocking on the European and American middle-class homes’ doors and many are letting him in. The exodus [of climate refugees from the South] will be responded with a lot of violence and barbarism. What we are seeing in Gaza is the rehearsal of the future.

“Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler has already entered their homes and they are getting ready to defend their high levels of carbon consumption and reject the exodus it causes.”

This is what is at stake in Ukraine, in Palestine, and elsewhere. The principle of ‘never again’ is being abandoned across the world. As we develop and promote a programme that can address the climate crisis at home and abroad, we must not waver in our commitment to opposing these ‘rehearsals’ of future barbarism. Support for those resisting encroachment, invasion and displacement must be at the heart of our political agenda.

Our task

This is a brief, impassioned call for Greens and progressives in the wider labour and environmental movement to strengthen our practical support for Ukrainian people.

The rising tide of authoritarianism represented by Trump, Meloni, and Farage must be opposed. People in the UK will be tempted to ‘check out’, forget any broader implications, and accept an unjust ‘deal’ foisted on Ukraine. We must resist this urge at every juncture.

Greens, and the thousands of others with a background in the peace movement, may be inclined to see any deal that brings an end to the current wave of fighting as acceptable. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainian people themselves. Peace is and will always remain our goal. But a so-called ‘peace’ deal, grounded in injustice and unfreedom, without self-determination and full political and civil rights, is not peace at all. And a world in which the futures of subjected peoples are traded and bartered at the whims of authoritarian leadership upheld by fossil fuel dependency can never be a just, peaceful world.

Greens in particular have the opportunity to draw the links between migration, justice, climate, racism, and military aggression across the world. We can address the ecological and feminist dimensions of conflict, advocating for fossil fuel divestment to defund war and genocide, and recognising the agency of those most affected instead of perceiving them through the lens of victimhood. Importantly, we can popularise visions of justice and peace that speak from the perspective of people, not states and their strategic self-interests.

Solidarity with Ukraine means speaking up for full de-occupation and restoration of its control over internationally recognised borders. It means providing those military supplies that our countries already have, critically needed by frontline defenders, to ensure a just victory – without the need to significantly increase military spending. It means demanding accountability for the perpetrators of the thousands of war crimes committed against humanity and environment, to deter future escalation and ensure the stability needed for a grassroots-led sustainable recovery instead of a colonial resource-grab by global superpowers.

There is an alternative to the ‘climate barbarism’ that capitalism has in store for us; we can bring that alternative to ever larger audiences. We can agitate for recovery from conflict that serves people and the planet, not the interests of capitalists in our own countries. It starts by defending the freedoms that are necessary in order for democracy to flourish.

We invite you to join us on Saturday 22 February at 1pm, as we join the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign to mark the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you would like to stand with us, please contact Matthew at matthew.hull@greenparty.org.uk.

Viktoriya Ball is a Ukrainian climate and health justice activist based in England. She is a member of the Green Party of England & Wales. Since 2022, she has actively campaigned for an embargo on Russian fossil fuels with the Eastern European youth climate movement, and supported the movement to foster broader connections between their struggle and issues of peace and security, including from an anti-colonial perspective.

Matthew Hull is Trade Union Liaison Officer on the Green Party of England & Wales’ Executive Committee.

Image credit: UP9 – Creative Commons