On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine War, the world is no closer to peace. The United States has far outspent all other major Western powers in terms of military and financial aid to Ukraine, with over USD$100 billion spent on the war so far, and it is still unwilling to consider a negotiated solution.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his state of the nation speech to the Russian Federal Assembly. The address was highly criticized in the Western press which has consistently portrayed the head of state as the sole aggressor in the ongoing war.
During his speech, Putin notably announced Russia’s withdrawal from the New START Treaty, the last remaining treaty limiting Russian and US nuclear weapons. The move has been condemned in Western media, with many characterizing the treaty as the “last” one regulating US and Russia’s nuclear arsenals. Yet, almost no mention is made of the treaties that the US has abandoned with Russia. In his speech, Putin referenced these past treaties, “The whole world witnessed how [the US] withdrew from fundamental agreements on weapons, including the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles, unilaterally tearing up the fundamental agreements that maintain world peace.” With the scrapping of this latest treaty, the world inches closer to nuclear war.
Western media has already spent some time “fact-checking” Putin’s speech, in what seems like an attempt to distract from the uncomfortable truths presented. Putin framed the United States and the West as aggressors in the war, stating that the US has the most military bases abroad out of any other country at over 750. “I want to emphasize this – hundreds of bases all over the world; the planet is covered with them, and one look at the map is enough to see this,” said Putin.
US President Joe Biden’s speech delivered hours later in Warsaw, indicated that the US bipartisan establishment is united in their unwillingness to deescalate: “Our support for Ukraine will not waver. NATO will not be divided, and we will not tire,” Biden said. Biden made a “surprise” visit to Ukraine on February 20 to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Putin directly called out NATO aggression towards Russia, such as “NATO’s expansion to our borders.” NATO’s courtship of bordering countries such as Ukraine and the building of its military presence ever-closer to Russia’s borders are acts of aggression that precipitated the 2022 outbreak of the war, according to anti-war activists, even those in the US.
The fighting in Donbass, where the people have been under attack by Ukraine since the 2014 Euromaidan coup, was also mentioned by the Russian leader. Biden had a very different characterization of the Donbass situation, referencing the “Ukrainian patriots who fought for years against Russia’s aggressions in the Donbass, and the heroes who’ve given everything, given their lives in service of their beloved Ukraine.”
“Since 2014, Donbass has been fighting for the right to live in their land and to speak their native tongue,” Putin said, of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics which are fighting for secession from Ukraine. Over 14,000 people have been killed in Donbass since 2014. The two People’s Republics have received support from anti-imperialists across Europe.
Putin also mentioned the Munich Security Conference, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed the US, the EU, and NATO for even more military support. German anti-war groups protested the event.
The anti-war movement in the US is gearing up for a march on Washington, DC to demand peace on March 18. Spearheaded by the ANSWER Coalition, the People’s Forum, CODEPINK, and others, the action is held on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and is a follow-up to the DC and New York City anti-war rallies that were held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, invoking MLK’s legacy of fighting for peace to stand against continued NATO aggression in Ukraine.
“The American taxpayer is paying the price for the US govt’s crusade of death and destruction,” tweeted the ANSWER Coalition. “Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!”
