Ukraine

On Thursday 11 April a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure totally destroyed the Trypilska thermal power plant, the largest supplier of electricity in the Kyiv region.

A little more than 85 years ago, on 28 March 1939, the Spanish civil war ended. The fascist forces under the command of General Franco entered the capital, Madrid, and it was all over. Spain did not see freedom again for nearly four decades. There are many reasons why the Spanish Republic fell — some of them due to failures by the Republican leadership. But one outstanding reason was the lack of support that the Spanish Republic received from democratic states like Britain, France and the United States. While Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided weapons, ammunition and air support to the...

The Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow on 22 March was one of the largest terrorist attacks the country has seen in recent memory.

As Solidarity goes to press National Education Union (NEU) delegates will be assembling for our annual conference in Bournemouth (3-6 April). The union has still not passed a position on the war over two years after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The leading faction in the NEU, the NEU Left, led by the SWP and Stop the War (StW)-supporting, Stalinoid leftists, have attempted at past conferences to have a position adopted which they call “pro-peace”. The NEU Left want the West to stop providing weapons to Ukraine which, they claim, will bring “peace”. In fact inadequate arms...

Review of the Scottish Socialist Party pamphlet on Ukraine

Transnistria is a long, thin strip of territory, formally part of Moldova, sandwiched between the Dniester river and the Ukrainian border. The area forms about 12 percent of Moldovan territory.

Over at the Communist Party of Britain and their mouthpiece, the Morning Star , there have been some celebrations. At last, things seem to be going their way both domestically and internationally. Ukraine seems to be in difficulty and Russia has been making some small but significant gains. The CPB and the Morning Star in theory condemn the Russian invasion, but many of the paper’s writers have made little secret of their hope that it will succeed. Leading CPBer and regular contributor Nick Wright, for instance, has always cheered on the invaders and, early on, gloated that anyone joining the...

It’s been over two years now that troops arrived and tanks rolled into Ukraine: the country, and the world, awoke to a full-scale Russian invasion. Two years ago we spoke with several Russians to hear their thoughts on the war, and a year ago, we caught up with them to see how their lives had changed. In what has become a grim tradition, we today once again: what’s changed, what hasn’t, what’s next? Challenges & Change For Kirill, who relocated to Italy after the start of the war, things have settled. “I have more or less adapted. I began to understand Italian culture and the country as a...

Reactionary mobilisations of Eastern European farmers to halt the movement and sale of Ukrainian grain products continue, especially on the Polish-Ukraine border. For the last two weeks Polish farmers have blocked the border. On Tuesday 13 February Polish farmers seized and dumped Ukrainian-produced grain on to the road at the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing. The nationalist-protectionist farmers chanted, “This is Poland, not Brussels. We do not support Ukrainians.” Last week grain was destroyed by Polish protesters after a cargo train was stopped. 2,900 trucks were backed-up on the Polish...

After ten years of war, and two years of all-out invasion, Russia is turning the parts of Ukraine it has occupied into a giant military buffer zone, from which further assaults may be launched, the Eastern Human Rights Group (EHRG) has warned. The expansion of military combat, training and transport infrastructure, and the forced mobilisation of local men, was documented in a recent report by the group, which champions labour and civil rights in the occupied areas. While military institutions multiply, industry across the occupied territories stagnates. Russian passports are forced on young...