No arms for Nazis!

by New Worker correspondent

Protesters sent a message to Starmer outside his official residence in Downing Street on Saturday demanding an end to the British government's support for the Banderite Nazi regime in Kiev. Every day we see reports on social media of Ukrainian troops brutally murdering civilians who have refused orders to evacuate from settlements in Donbas, where they’ve have been chased out by the Russians and Donbas forces along with international volunteers. For eleven and a half years the NATO puppet Kiev junta has rained death and terror on the people of Donbas, and imposed a brutal dictatorship across the whole of Ukraine, and particularly in Kharkov, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Kherson, and in the past three years deliberately targeted buses, trains and individual civilians and buildings in the Russian Federation.
The protesters, activists from the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign, also called for the restoration of peace and freedom, and looked forward to the day when the fascist scourge was eliminated from the beautiful land of Ukraine.

Stand with the Ukrainian anti-fascists!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists protested in central London last weekend in solidarity with the millions of Ukrainians resisting the Banderite dictatorship, and the maurading military "headhunter" gangs grabbing men off the streets across the country to send to a war which 70 per cent of Ukrainians no longer support. Dozens of people showed support for the protest, clapped and took photos. Only one person spoke to us opposing our slogans, and engaged in a long, and apparently pointless, discussion. The picket opposite Downing Street in Whitehall was organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement that campaigns in support of the people of the Donbas and the Ukrainian resistance fighting the fascist puppet regime in Kiev.

Stop Ukrainian Nazism!

 

by Theo Russell

A candlelit vigil was held in Whitehall last Saturday to remember the thousands of journalists, bloggers, politicians, activists, priests, pensioners and sportspeople who have been arrested, and many tortured or murdered, since the February 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev.
The event was organised by the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), which has been campaigning for six years in solidarity with anti-fascists and democrats in Ukraine who have been arrested for opposing the war, organising Second World War commemorations, allegedly working with Russian forces such as organising humanitarian supplies or corridors, or simply for posts on social media.
In January 2024 Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira died in prison in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkov, where he had been imprisoned for eight months charged with “justifying Russia’s war efforts” in Ukraine. He had lived in Ukraine for many years with his family and was a globally known critic of the Zelensky regime.
Despite calls for his release from the likes of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, the US government and their embassy in Kiev took no action to help him. The British and EU governments stayed silent too.
Only days after Lira’s death an 82-year-old citizen, Yuri Chernishov, received 15 years in prison with all his property seized – effectively a life sentence – on charges of sending information on Ukrainian troops to an alleged Russian contact. Footage from the courtroom shows him shouting at his jailers and branding them “fascists”.
Since 2014 Ukraine has been a corrupt and lawless state, with Banderite (Ukrainian fascist) organisations like the Azov Battalion and Hitler-admiring Right Sector. penetrating the army, police and intelligence services.
Many civilians have been beaten and tortured in secret prison camps where it’s common for them to be kept standing up in holes in the ground for days on end. The evidence is all available on the web in photos, videos and eyewitness accounts for anyone to find, but the Western mass media shows no interest.
There has never been any investigation into the killing of over 40 peaceful anti-fascist protesters when the Trade Unions House in Odessa was surrounded and petrol bombed by a mob of nationalists and football “ultras” on 2nd May 2014.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have received long prison sentences, with all their property confiscated, for “crimes” such as posting Soviet era greetings on social media, for continuing in their jobs as teachers, railway, gas and health workers in areas which were under the control of Russian forces.
After the Russian intervention in February 2022, areas recaptured by Ukrainian forces were “cleansed” by Kiev’s forces and far-right units, and many local officials and ordinary citizens were brutally murdered.
One such case was reported in March 2022 by the Daily Mail: “The pro-Russian mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine who welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion was 'shot dead' after being kidnapped from his home. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia”.
Many other local officials suffered the same fate, including in the town of Bucha, near Kiev, where the deaths of people shot by a punitive police unit led by a notorious Russian fascist were attributed to Russian forces in our media.
The whole world knows that since 2014 the new pro-NATO regime in Kiev has treated Russian-speaking Ukrainians as second-class citizens. Over 20 per cent of Ukrainians consider Russian their native language, but around 80 per cent also speak and read Russian.
Russian has been removed as an official language in Ukraine. Russian books, banned in all educational settings and libraries, have all been destroyed by the authorities

Halt escalation in Ukraine

by New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators were in Whitehall on Saturday protesting against the supply of British long range Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainians to fire the flames of NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The picket opposite the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street was organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign which has been supporting the people of the Donbas and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance on the street since 2014.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance parliamentary bloc has sent out an open letter, endorsed by CND and some union leaders, condemning the use of the new missiles supplied by Britain and the United States to the Ukrainian regime and calling for an end to escalation and the start of negotiations with Russia to end the conflict in eastern Europe.
The letter that was published in the Guardian said “We are deeply concerned about the escalation in Ukraine. In response to British-made Storm Shadow missiles fired into Kursk, just days after Ukraine used the US’s army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to attack Bryansk, reports indicate that Russia has now launched intercontinental missiles into southern Ukraine. This rapid escalation seriously threatens an all-out military confrontation with Russia and Nato. The risk of a nuclear attack cannot be ruled out.
“The British government has to take responsibility for its actions and these terrible consequences. With hundreds of thousands already killed and injured, securing an end to this horrific conflict is crucial. We call on Joe Biden and Keir Starmer to halt this escalation and secure talks with Russia and Ukraine. Diplomacy and dialogue, not military escalation, are the only viable paths to a peaceful settlement in the region”.
The letter was signed by the five Independent Alliance MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Mohamed, and Adnan Hussain, as well as maverick Labour MP Diane Abbott. Other endorsers included PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote, RMT President Alex Gordon, Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt and the musician Brian Eno.

No more arms for Ukraine!

Piers Corbyn joins the protest

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined demonstrators in Whitehall demanding an end to British military aid to the fascist regime in Kiev last weekend while Scottish anti-fascists made similar demands in a protest in the heart of Glasgow. The pickets were organised by the International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity campaign to call for an end to British arms supplies to the illegitimate Zelensky regime in Kiev and against British demands for Storm Shadow missile strikes deep into Russia.
The London protest opposite the Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street came under sustained abuse from two Zelensky supporters for almost an hour. One of them, who said he was Portuguese, said he visited Kiev last month where he has friends but didn't see a single Nazi, then he claimed to be an anarchist. They were crazed fanatics, just like the Zionists who attack the pro-Palestinian marchers. But many passers by came to give us support including the maverick campaigner Piers Corbyn, the brother of the former Labour leader, then joined the picket along with his friends who had just left a local Palestine solidarity event.
The world is now facing the possibility of two major regional wars: one in Europe, a possible Russia-NATO nuclear war, and another which could engulf the entire Middle East as a result of Israel’s relentless aggression. Both Ukraine and Israel have the support of Britain and the United States, who have designated the enemies of Ukraine and Israel “terrorists”.
Both of these wars are the result of years of aggression and expansion by NATO member states, through their puppet government and Nazi battalions in Ukraine, and through Israel, the war machine they have armed and financed in the heart of the Arab world.
The British government and 'free' media have not told people in Britain that Storm Shadow missile strikes from Ukraine have to be programmed by British military personnel on the ground in Ukraine, making British armed forces de facto at war with Russia. They have not told people in Britain that the only thing stopping Britain from the madness of "going it alone" with missile strikes on Russia is that they need permission from the Americans, who control the satellite data and software used by Storm Shadow missiles.
Every day we hear condemnation of alleged civilian victims of Russian attacks in Ukraine, but for ten years we've heard nothing about civilians being killed in Eastern Ukraine by Ukrainian forces.
Britain and the USA have refused to officially condemn the genocide against civilians in Gaza, and for ten years have almost completely ignored the thousands of victims of the bombing, starvation and disease in Yemen. Now they are silent about the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Lebanon, and have declared the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah a success against “terrorism”. But there have been no open doors and red carpet welcomes for Palestinian or Yemeni refugees!

Stop NATO’s war in Ukraine!

By New Worker correspondent

Simultaneous protests were held in London, Berlin and Paris on Saturday to draw attention to the links between NATO aggression in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen. The London protest took place in Parliament Square and attracted support from many passers by and international tourists, several of whom actually joined the protestors.
While Western governments, now with the greater involvement of Britain and France, have supported Kiev regime with billions in weapons and money, they have done nothing to stop Israel committing open genocide in Gaza, with hospitals and civilians deliberately targeted over 10,000 children killed, and chaos, disease and starvation affecting Gaza's million people.
Britain, France and the US are still sending weapons to Israel, and while they condemned recent Russian missile strikes in Ukraine, they have looked the other way while Israel deliberately targets civilians in Gaza.
The whole world is witness to Israel’s war crimes, and the hypocrisy of Western governments who support, arm and finance both Ukraine and Israel, who unilaterally bomb Yemen with no UN or other international sanction, and say nothing when Israel repeatedly carries out air strikes and assassinations in Lebanon and Syria. 

International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) has been campaigning for six years in solidarity with anti-fascists in Ukraine, thousands of whom have paid with their lives, torture or prison for resisting the regime installed in 2014 with the support of Britain, the USA and the European Union. Its activists have taken part  in every protest since 7th October in solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Gaza Strip.

Struggling for the future of Ukraine!

John Maxted speaking

by New Worker correspondent

A successful 'hybrid' meeting took place in central London and on Zoom on Sunday 12 November on the topic 'The struggle against Banderite fascism and the future of Ukraine', with speakers from Britain, Ireland, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Poland. The event was organised by International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity.
The speakers taking part were Bill O'Brien of the Truth and Neutrality Alliance (Ireland), Larissa Schessler from the Union of Ukrainian Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners, Dmitry Vasilets, Chair of Representative Office of the Ukrainian People and leader of the Ukrainian Derzhava Party, Boris Litvinov of the Donetsk District Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Denis Zomer of the United Communist Party of Russia, Tatiana Desyatova – CPRF Moscow Region, John Maxted from No2Nato-No2war (Britain), Paul Atkin, a UK blogger and political commentator, and Konrad Rekas, a Polish journalist and political commentator.
Messages of support were received from Alexey Albu, the Borotba (Struggle) representative (the leading Ukrainian anti-fascist organisation), together with Tony Greenstein from the Socialist Labour Network, Gedrus Grabauskas, the leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania, Urij Khokhlov from the Russian Communist Workers Party, Chris Helali (PCUSA)  and Dave Clennon from Struggle-La Lucha (USA).
The speakers and discussion covered the background to the tragic conflict in Ukraine since 2014, the countless crimes and brutal repression meted out by the Banderite Hitler-admiring armed gangs, and how the imperialist countries will approach a future democratic Ukraine - with continued support for Banderite terrorism, subversion attempts and outrageous lies. The speakers also drew parallels and connections between Ukraine and Gaza, and the common roles of NATO and US-led Western colonialism-imperialism in both of these tragic conflicts.

No British arms to Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) gathered opposite Downing Street in London's Whitehall last week to demand an end to British weapons supplies to Ukraine. They carried placards including "No more more British weapons for Ukrainian Nazis!", "No more Challengers -  No more depleted uranium - No more Stormshadows", "No British boots on the ground in Ukraine", and "British troops and Spooks out of Ukraine!". The protest was joined by members of No2NATO - NO2WAR, and the No2NATO banner was displayed alongside the Solidarity with the Anti Fascist Resistance banner and a banner demanding freedom for Ukrainian political prisoners. The protest was covered in a report by the RT News English language Moscow studios, which included contributions from several members of IUAFS. IUAFS has now decided to hold protests in Whitehall on every last Thursday of the month, with the next protest scheduled for 27th July, 6.30-8pm.

Free all Ukrainian political prisoners!

by Theo Russell

London comrades returned to Whitehall on Saturday to bring the crimes of the Ukrainian government to the attention of the British people. Some 30 protesters joined the picket opposite Downing Street organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign, to let the people “know that the regime in Ukraine, to which the British Government has given billions of pounds in financial and military support, has been committing horrific crimes against its own people, including Russian speakers, opposition activists and campaigners, journalists and Roma people, under the cover of accusing them of treason”.
    A IUAFS spokesman said: “Several mayors in eastern Ukraine have been summarily executed as well as local elected civilian officials for "crimes" such as negotiating humanitarian corridors with the Russian military. They should have been entitled to a due process of law, instead of being tortured, shot, and then dumped in the street.
    “Hundreds of journalists, bloggers, politicians, elected representatives, activists, priests, sportspeople, and even Ukrainian negotiators and military officers have been arrested and beaten, and some tortured or murdered. Most were charged with treason simply for opposing Kiev's policies, and not brought to trial after many months.
    “Alexander Matyuschenko, one of dozens of leftists arrested in Dnipro, central Ukraine, was an activist with the Livizta (Left) organisation, which campaigned against social spending cuts and right-wing propaganda. He was arrested by SBU (Ukrainian intelligence) and Azov members, tortured and forced to shout the nationalist salute, Slava Ukraini!, while his wife's hair was cut off with a knife.

NCP leader Andy Brooks

    "One of Ukraine’s most prominent human rights activists is Elena Berezhnaya, Director of the Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection, who has spoken before the UN Security Council. She was arrested in March 2022 in Kiev. There has been no news of her since.
    "We know about these crimes because Ukrainian ultra-rightists and even regular soldiers have bragged about them in social media posts, including one of a Russian soldier who had one of his eyes gouged before he was killed, with the caption 'One-eyed captured Russian pig'.
    "We think it is essential to speak out about the actions of a government for whom the British government seems to have unlimited resources to support, at a time when millions here in Britain are facing a grim and uncertain future and our basic public services are chronically underfunded and understaffed”.
    During the protest a woman waiving the flag of the Donetsk people’s republic was attacked by a reactionary, believed to be from the Caucasian republic of Georgia. But he was dragged away by a policewoman supported by an Iranian who left a nearby protest to chivalrously intervene on the picketer’s behalf.
    Towards the end of the protest the demonstrators came under a torrent of abuse from a small group of Ukrainian and English supporters of the Nazi-infested regime in Kiev. They were, however, speedily warned off by the police.
    The protest was supported by the Consistent Democrats, CPGB (ML), New Communist Party, Socialist Labour Party, Socialist Fight and the Posadists in Britain. Solidarity messages were received from former Labour MP Chris Williamson who is now a leading member of the Socialist Labour Party, Phil Wilayto of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign in the United States, and Leonid Ilderkin from the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, who has recently moved back to Ukraine.

• Skwarkbox report
• La Lucha (USA) report

What freedom of speech really means

When the chips are down not much if the latest saga involving George Galloway is anything to go by. The maverick Scottish politician who has been elected to Parliament six times – starting with Labour and then on independent platforms – is known throughout the labour movement for his support of the Cuban and Palestinian people and his defence of Iraq when it was invaded by US-led imperialism.
    A master of the media Galloway was sacked by talkRADIO after sending an allegedly anti-Semitic tweet about Liverpool’s victory over Tottenham in the Champions League final in 2019. But he stayed in the limelight broadcasting on the international services of the Russian and Iranian media, and championing a variety of causes including the party he now leads – the Workers Party of Britain.
    Galloway has learned to live with the wrath of the Zionists and Blairites. His politics have fired the anger of cranks and fanatics – he was even attacked in the street during the Gaza war in 2014. But he’s never faced a concerted effort to prevent him from arguing his corner for good or bad on the streets and at public meetings up and down the country. Until now…
    Galloway clearly crossed a Rubicon when he embraced the cause of the people of the Donbas. And when he launched his NO2NATO NO2WARS movement the hidden hand went into action to stop it getting off the ground.
    Speakers included Galloway and former Labour MP Chris Williamson, along with two Irish Members of the European Parliament and a number of other campaigners and journalists. Attempts to hold mass meetings in London have been sabotaged after St Pancras New Church and the Conway Hall cancelled bookings for his new campaign. Conway Hall says it had been subjected to unprecedented harassment – including a barrage of “intimidating emails and social media posts” which meant that “Conway Hall can no longer host your event as we are now unable to ensure the safety of our building and our staff on and offline”.
    Williamson has joined Galloway in denouncing the “anti-democratic cancel culture” that’s being used to silence opposition to Nato. He accused “erstwhile liberals” of being complicit in a state crackdown on anti-Establishment views.
    This is something new. We never saw this when British forces were actually fighting during the Falklands conflict and the Yugoslav, Iraqi and Afghan wars. So why now?
It’s clearly because the ruling class are afraid of anything that challenges the American narrative on Ukraine.
    Galloway’s party puts it another way. Conjuring up the spirit of Chairman Mao they say “it is good if we are attacked by the warmongers and their online trolls, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. The trolls attack us wildly, threaten the venues and harass staff, they paint us as utterly black and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between them and ourselves but achieved a great deal in our work.
    “Our slogan, “No to Nato, No to War” is more widely known and understood than before, more people buy tickets and await the announcement of the next venue. Other events purporting to speak against the war are allowed to go ahead in peace, precisely because they do not challenge the imperialist narrative that the Ukraine conflict began just 1 year ago. This is a lie, and one we are exposing”.
    This we would wholeheartedly agree.

Donbas solidarity at Stop the War

Salma Yaqoob addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

Donbas solidarity activists were at the Stop the War trade union conference last Saturday to leaflet the meeting and intervene during the debate in the hall. The latest leaflet of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement was handed out at the doors in support of the just struggle of the people of the Donbas for freedom and self-determination.
    But the main focus of this conference was on building a bigger peace movement and working to reverse the TUC’s decision last year to support increased arms spending.
    Many speakers, like the Italian worker talking about the Genoese dockers’ efforts to stop arms going to Israel and Saudi Arabia never even mentioned Ukraine. Those that did stuck to the mealy-mouthed position of the leadership whose calls for an end to the war are linked with the demand for a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Crimea and the Donbas – which is exactly what NATO wants.
    In the past left Labour MPs were happy to openly support the efforts of the Stop the War campaign. But none of them showed up for Saturday’s conference at Hamilton House in central London.
    Stop the War vice-chair Andrew Murray said: “If you remember the vast demonstration 20 years ago against the Iraq war, which Stop the War led, that demonstration had the support of nearly every major union in the country — and in many cases the union leaderships had been driven there by their members, rather than necessarily by their own willingness to confront the Labour government”.
    Then nearly 140 Labour MPs defied Tony Blair to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Now none of them are prepared to face the wrath of Starmer and the inevitable suspension à la Corbyn that would inevitably follow for refusing to toe the imperialist line.
    Murray said “the leader of the Labour Party, revealing himself every day as more of an authoritarian imperialist has made it clear that any Labour MP would sacrifice the whip and their seat in Parliament if they associate with the anti-war movement — something even Tony Blair did not do. That is a democratic outrage which our movement should be standing against loud and clear”.
    Jeremy Corbyn was also absent having just returned from campaigning in America on behalf of Julian Assange. But he did at least make a video call to conference in support of peace negotiations. Though the former Labour leader avoided the ‘Russian troops out’ mantra he did say that the Russian invasion was “wrong” – before calling for peace talks, possibly brokered by Brazil, to end the fighting.
    The anti-war movement’s calls to ‘stop the war’ and ‘no to NATO expansion’ are routinely prefaced with the ‘Russian troops out’ demand which is what the imperialists and the Ukrainian fascists are fighting for in the first place.
    The two leaders of the self-styled “anti-war” movement – CND Chair Kate Hudson and Stop the War convener Lindsey German – both rejected the argument of one participant who intervened from the floor to say that blaming both Nato and Russia for the Ukraine war confused the question and that Russia should be seen as a victim of US imperialism.
    Lindsey German said it was important to acknowledge the “humanitarian catastrophe” unleashed by Putin’s invasion and what she called the aggressive expansionism of Russia, while also recognising the role of NATO expansion in provoking the war.
    Though the Stop the War leadership and their supporters amongst the left social-democratic and pacifist trends within the Labour Party have distanced themselves from the fake left’s “arm Ukraine” brigade they have not broken with the bourgeois consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that ignores the fascist nature of the Kiev regime, brands Russia the aggressor and ignores the legitimate rights of the people of Crimea and the Donbas who have joined the Russian Federation.
    The anti-imperialist struggle in Ukraine is part of the global front of the poor and the oppressed who are fighting for freedom all around the world. We must counter the bogus ‘evenhandedness’ within the peace movement with the call for victory for the Russian and Donbas forces fighting fascism and NATO-inspired aggression.

Spotlight Donbas

the burnt-out shell of Mariupol police station

by Theo Russell

Around 40 activists attended a recent meeting in central London to see UK photographer and journalist Dean O'Brien show his photos of the Donbas, speaking on his experiences there and answering questions. He has recently been interviewed twice on these topics on George Galloway's Mother of all Talk Shows on RT News.
    Dean first visited Kiev in 2008, and even then, six years before the February 2014 Euromaidan coup, he saw neo-Nazi marches with people wearing German WW2 uniforms and waving swastika flags, and Hitler's Mein Kampf and SS books being sold on the city's streets.
    He was in Kiev at the time of the Western-backed coup in February 2014 which installed openly fascist parties and armed groups in the government, police and armed forces.
    "I witnessed how the government in Kiev was illegally overthrown in the so-called ‘Maidan’ revolution, backed by the US to destabilise the whole country, and plunging it into the war we see today. I saw the far-right intimidating Russian speakers.
    In 2018 Dean visited Odessa on May 2, the anniversary of the Trade Unions House Fire in 2014 in which a far-right mob surrounded anti-fascists. Many were burned alive and many trying to escape were murdered. There has never been any investigation, but 50 and 100 are believed to have been killed.
    At the memorial gathering Dean said "the fascists were kicking and spitting on the mothers of those who had died, while the police stood by and did nothing. Later I saw them sharing a beer with the fascists”.
    But in spite of the danger of fascist attacks, in ‘Kiev-controlled’ Ukraine Dean saw many examples of open resistance to the junta and the fascist thugs.
    “On Victory Day (May 9, the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945) all over Ukraine, even in Kiev, citizens still risk fascist attacks by publicly marking the victory over Nazism, including many grandmothers and great grandmothers".
    Dean later visited several majority Russian speaking cities in the East, where positive memories of the Soviet Union are widespread and many are against the illegal government and the fascist gangs it has unleashed.
    "People in Eastern Ukraine don't recognise the current government. and see it as Illegal”. These people who oppose the Kiev junta, along with and the four million living in the rebel republics, are labelled separatists and terrorist supporters by the Kiev regime. And as far as the Western media is concerned, they don’t exist - they’ve been ‘cancelled out’ along with Syrians, Libyans, Palestinians, Venezuelans and Kashmiris.
    In Mariupol Dean visited the police station which sided with the Anti-maidan forces and was destroyed by the Ukraine Army and fascist battalions in heavy fighting in the 2014-15 war. All the police inside were killed.
    “While I was in the east people were telling me to visit ‘the other side’. They had relatives in ‘non-government controlled’ Donbas, and said that I should go and see what the Ukrainian government is doing to them.
    “I’d read so many conflicting articles regarding what was happening there, so the only solution was to go and see for myself.
    "In May 2019 I travelled to the Donbas for the first time. This meant that I could never visit Kiev controlled Ukraine again while the current regime was still in place.
    “I’d heard that there was no food in the shops, that the streets were full of Russian soldiers. I’d been told that the people there were imprisoned and that the streets were dangerous. None of this turned out to be true”.
    Western reporters don’t even bother to visit the ‘rebel’ republics. On UK radio, TV and in the papers they simply report the war from the Ukrainian side of the front line - taking great care to only interview supporters of the Kiev regime.
    “Most western media correspondents are based in Kiev and only report from one side. It’s biased lazy reporting at best” Dean said.
    It comes as no surprise then that Dean found that “people in Donetsk were happy and pleased that I had travelled all the way from the UK to hear their side of the story”.
    "Donetsk City is like any other European city with cafes, restaurants. I felt very safe there, safer than my home town, Coventry, and Donetsk City feels like any other European city.
    “Bars and coffee shops were open, supermarkets all had food. There were no Russian soldiers, only volunteers who were all local men and women. People were going about their daily business, travelling to work etc.
    “In the evening people sat on benches playing chess, teenagers were texting on their phones and listening to music. So life is fairly normal there in the city centre. That is until dusk arrives and you can hear the boom of shelling in the distance. Then you remember where you are.
    “I was most impressed with the cleanliness of the streets. Virtually no graffiti. That although there was a war going on people were happy. They never spoke about revenge, only the desire for peace. One thing they did make clear though was that they were not prepared to give up their new republic and re-integrate back with government controlled Ukraine.
    "The most common phrase I heard being spoken in Donetsk by the inhabitants was "Ya xachoo mira" - "We want peace".
    “I met many members of the People's Militia, the DPR's defence force. I also visited frontline positions at Yasynuvata, and the militia members I spoke to all had a high level of political awareness.
    He pointed out that “During the fighting in 2014-15 there were no Russian regular soldiers, but there were many Russian volunteers.
    “My life was never going to be the same after this visit. It really opened my eyes to how the media controls how and what we think”.
    “Once I’d been to the Donbas I knew that it would never be possible for me to return to government controlled Ukraine”.
    He was recently informed that he had been placed on the ironically named ‘Peacekeeper’ website. This was set up by fascists several years ago and has made public names, contacts and addresses of people who have visited or supported the Donbas, many Donbas, Crimean, Ukrainian and Russian citizens, and Western journalists whose work they see as unacceptable.
    “That confirmed to me that they do not like objective reportage. I’m now on their list with many other photojournalists and correspondents. But in all honesty, it’s a small price to pay to get the truth out there about this conflict.
    “Those that have heard about the conflict believe that Russia has invaded Ukraine, simply because that’s the message the western media is sending out to them.
    "But the media fails to mention the West staging the coup which helped Ukraine fall into a civil war and overthrow the legally elected government. That’s what started all of this, turning Ukraine into the mess of a country that we are witnessing today”.
    Dean is working on a small self-published photo book, Shots From Donbass, which will be a collection of images from his visit to the Donbas in May 2019.
    Since 2019 Dean has not been able to return to the Donbas due to the covid pandemic. Last autumn he travelled to Rostov-on Don, but as the border to the Donetsk was closed he travelled to Crimea where he met volunteer fighters from the Donbass.
   He has continued to actively support and speak out for the people of the Donbas and all Ukrainian anti-fascists, including at the London gathering.

Joint Statement: Victory to the anti-fascist forces of Donbass and their allies!

Victory to the anti-fascist forces of Donbass and their allies! U.S./NATO hands off Russia!

The NATO-funded Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and other far right Ukrainian nationalists have slaughtered many thousands in Donbass in last 8 years.

On February 24, the anti-fascist Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, together with the Russian Federation, launched a military action with the goal of “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine. It is in the interest of poor and working people, anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the U.S. and other NATO countries, to take an unambiguous position in solidarity with the anti-fascist forces. The real war danger comes from US and NATO forces surrounding Russia. The government in Kiev is their proxy, with no regard for the people of Ukraine.

In March 2014 British foreign secretary William Hague lied to the House of Commons when he said that the removal of Viktor Yanukovych was in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution, saying “It is wrong to question the legitimacy of the new authorities.

In fact, Yanukovych’s removal met none of the Ukrainian constitution’s provisions: there was no special commission of the Rada, no review by the Constitutional Court, and the Rada passed a bill removing Yanukovych from office with a simple majority of 328 votes, 10 short of the two-thirds majority laid out in the Ukrainian constitution. No doubt Hague was “badly advised” by his Foreign Office advisors!

Over the past 8 years Ukrainian military and US-backed fascist battalions incorporated into the National Guard killed 5,059 people in the Donetsk People’s Republic, including 91 children (figures obtained from Donetsk last week), so the figure for both the anti-fascist republics is probably around 8-9,000 people including well over 100 children.

This war began in 2014 when Ukraine launched the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (ATO), just over a week after the CIA Director John Brennan visited Kiev to meet senior Ukrainian intelligence officials to “foster mutually beneficial security cooperation”. This was an all-out modern military offensive with tanks, artillery, missiles and aircraft. The ATO was still ongoing when the Russian intervention began last week, in fact it was being rapidly stepped up.

Millions of Ukrainians have been driven into political or economic exile since 2014, over two million now living in the Russian Federation alone. Many fled as a result of fascist death threats.

Up to 100 anti-fascists were murdered by fascists and nationalists at the Odessa Trade Union House Fire on May 2, 2014. No-one knows exactly how many, since there has never been any investigation.

Where was the media hysteria, and the calls for peace from the left and the peace movement, when men, women, children and the elderly were being bombed and shot by snipers in the Donbass for the past eight years?

Since November, the U.S. has pushed Kiev to a new murderous invasion of Donbass, while claiming that the real threat was from Russia. The U.S. rejected Moscow’s just demands to guarantee Ukraine’s neutrality. Russia recognized the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk on Feb. 21 –eight years after the people of Donbass overwhelmingly chose independence in a referendum, rejecting the pro-Western/neo-fascist coup government in Ukraine.

Washington and NATO deliberately and methodically pushed the Donbass republics and Russia into a corner, from which there were only two options: submit or fight back.

The People’s Militias of Donetsk and Lugansk are fighting to drive back the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including neo-Nazi battalions armed and trained by the U.S., Canada and NATO, that constantly threaten the lives of their residents. The anti-fascist military action, forced on Donbass and Russia by the Western imperialist powers – principally President Joe Biden and the U.S. government – has exposed confusion and equivocation in the anti-war movement, even among socialists and communists.

Modern capitalist Russia is not an imperialist country. It had no means to become one after the counter-revolution in the USSR. It is a regional power akin to India or Brazil, primarily an exporter of commodities, not capital. To maintain its independence, Russia had to ally with other countries in opposition to imperialism. Ukraine’s coup regime, by contrast, is a pawn of U.S. imperialism that has been waging a brutal war on its neighbours for eight years and offered itself as a base for NATO aggression against Russia.

Our responsibility is to stop U.S. imperialism and its wars in all forms, and to stand in solidarity with those who fight against U.S. domination.

· Victory to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and their allies!

· Justice for those murdered in the Odessa Trade Union House Massacre!

· Solidarity with the anti-fascist underground and exiles of Ukraine!

· U.S./NATO: Hands off Russia! Get out of Ukraine and Eastern Europe!

· Dismantle the imperialist NATO war machine – bring all the troops home now!

This statement is endorsed by: Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic, Consistent Democrats, Cumpanis (Italian communist journal), International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity, Movement for People's Democracy (USA) New Communist Party, Party of Communists USA (PCUSA), Posadists Today, Socialist Fight, US Friends of the Soviet People and the Zimbabwe Communist Party. It is adapted from a fine statement by the Socialist Unity Party / Partido de Socialismo Unido (USA).

Stand by the Donbas!

Boris Litvinov and his comrades

by New Worker correspondent

Communists discussed the crisis in eastern Ukraine and the threat of war when the NCP held an online meeting with Donbas communist leaders last week. NCP leader Andy Brooks and London Organiser Theo Russell joined Boris Litvinov and his comrades from the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic (CPDPR) via video link on 17th February.
    Donetsk communist leader Boris Litvinov spoke about the threat of a Ukrainian attack on the Donbas, the prospects for the recognition of the two Donbas people’s republics by the Russian Federation, the relationship between the CPDPR, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and the Ukrainian communist movement.
    Boris Litvinov said: "The current crisis began in the Western media, we can do nothing, it gets stronger and stronger, and we can do nothing. We think the beginning coincided with the start of the Olympics and the attempt to organise a boycott. We think the West saw this as the right time to start a campaign around Ukraine.
    "Now the Ukrainian military machine is well armed by its Western partners and there are over 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers near the border with the Donetsk People's Republic. Our people’s militias are in control of the situation on the front line, but they understand the situation is very dangerous for the Donbas People's Republics.
    "The escalation has become more and more serious, as shown by the evacuation of some Western diplomats.
    "People living near the border are suffering attacks day by day. Today the situation has become much more dangerous with increased shelling by Ukrainian forces, and the People's Militias have begun evacuating the population near the border.
    "This situation can’t be solved in Ukraine but only in Washington or Brussels. We have seen the European countries send many modern weapons to Ukraine. The escalation has become more and more serious leading to the evacuation of diplomats.
    "The day before yesterday (16 February) many Western correspondents slept outdoors, waiting for the war to start! It’s a shame the opinion they have of the People's Republics. Many brave people sang the anthem of the Soviet Union, but nothing happened.
    "We in the CP DPR are disappointed, depressed and nervous about the current situation.
Eight years ago we decided that we want to be part of the Russian world - this is our fundamental position. Russia understands and shares this position with us, and supports us from their side.
    "We strongly believe the Russian president will never leave us in any circumstances. We have waited eight years for negotiations to begin to join the Russian Federation. We don’t want war but we strongly believe that when war starts our neighbour Russia will support and protect us.
    "The most desirable situation we hope for is for Russian to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. The State Duma of the Russian Federation understands the current situation and the wish of the people to recognise our republics. The final decision rests with the Russian Federation president.
    "We see that the president of the Russian Federation has given strong support to the Minsk Agreements, and expects the politicians to follow the agreements, but the current situation can’t continue forever.
    "For eight years Ukraine has taken no steps to fulfil the Minsk Agreements. We are ready to wait, but no more than one month or one and a half months.
    "The choice we face is that either the Russian Federation recognises us, or the Minsk Agreements are implemented. But we believe that the Western governments won’t allow Kiev to fulfil the agreements, and want increased confrontation between Ukraine and Russia.
    "We have also seen more and more international support for recognition. This morning the President of Belarus said his country was ready to recognise our republics as soon as Russia takes that step. We also know that ten states in Latin America are ready to recognise the republics.
    "The world today is divided and is no longer unipolar. For us the leading centre of the world today is Russia. We see that we have the same values, the same religion and the same hopes as Russia, and we hope that in the near future we will be a united society, a Slavic society.
    "Many people in Ukraine have the same views and concerns, and we expect them to join us in the coming future.
    "In our initiative to join Russia we are setting an example to other nations that Russia is a leading country. Each nation is free to decide on their next steps of development.
    "We say that those who join together with Russia have a strong future and we believe other nations will choose our path and join with Russia.
    "Since 1991 we have observed centrifugal forces who have divided nations, and this has led to their collapse and the dangerous situation we see now. This is the right time for nations to become a united force and a force for peace.
    "The Communist Party of Ukraine is in a very dangerous position. It is well known in Solidnet, and the CP of Ukraine, the CP of the Russian Federation and the CP DPR are united and joined with other parties in the Union of Communist Parties ( a co-ordinating body made up of communist parties in the former republics of the USSR). In this framework we meet with the CP of Ukraine and we see our aims and wishes are the same.
    "The CPRF has delivered 13,000 tons of aid to the Donetsk People’s Republic. There is strong support for the recognition of our republics, and proven friendship towards us, in the Russian State Duma.
    "The main task of all communists is to support the unification of our nation States. We believe that as time goes on we will manage to revive our former Soviet Union.
    "The current US policy is to exert maximum pressure on France, Germany and the whole of Europe, but the US is not strong enough to cope with the Russian Federation.
    "We see that although the Second World War ended 75 years ago, there are no Russian forces on the territory of the EU, but a lot of US forces on the territory of the EU, a lot of US weapons on the territory of the European Union.
    "Ten to fifteen years ago the Russian Federation took the initiative to propose a zone of safety from the Atlantic to the Urals, a concept which is not possible while there are US forces on EU territory.
    "Describing the NCP as "dear, warm friends", Boris Litvinov thanked the NCP "for your attitude and support for our actions and initiatives", and said he hoped contacts between the two parties will continue".
    In the discussion NCP general secretary Andy Brooks spoke of the erroneous position being taken by some parties in the world communist movement who argue that the US and Russia are equivalent imperialist powers and the need to build solidarity with the people of the Donbas all over the world. In Britain the NCPB was campaigning in a united front with other progressive forces in support of the Donbas republics and all the anti-fascist forces in Ukraine.

• Report in the Donbas communist media

Eye-witness Ukraine in London

by New Worker correspondent

Around 40 activists attended a meeting on central London last Saturday to see UK photographer and journalist Dean O'Brien showing photos of the Donbas, speaking on his experiences there and answering questions.
    The meeting almost didn't take place, however, after the Ukrainian Embassy in London contacted Greene King Pubs and told them it had been organised by "supporters of Russian-backed terrorists".
    As a result the original venue was cancelled, followed by a pro-Ukrainian twitter mob bombarding Greene King Pubs and threatening to turn up at the original venue.
    An alternative venue was found at the last minute and a highly successful meeting took place. Dean's photos and talk covering history trips to Ukraine before the February 2014 EU-NATO sponsored coup and several subsequent trips to the rebel held republics in Eastern Ukraine was highly appreciated by everyone present.
    The meeting, chaired by the NCP’s Theo Russell, also provided an opportunity to discuss the highly dangerous current situation in and around Ukraine, and a lively discussion about campaigning in solidarity with all Ukrainian anti-fascists including those on both sides of the front line, and the hundreds of thousands driven into exile by the current fascist-ridden US puppet government in Kiev.
    Dean said that on his first trip to Kiev in 2008 he saw fascist marches, German World War 2 uniforms and flags, Hitler's Mein Kampf and SS books being sold on the streets.
    He has recently been interviewed twice on these topics on George Galloway's Mother of all Talk Shows programme on Russia Today. A full report on Dean's talk will appear in the New Worker next week.

British forces out of Ukraine and the Black Sea!

by New Worker correspondent

Anti-fascist campaigners were back in Whitehall last weekend, defying sub-zero temperatures to stand by the Donbas people’s republics and protest against the British government’s support for the puppet regime in Ukraine. British military advisers are training Ukrainian army units and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has recently given the go-ahead to an arms deal to boost Ukraine's naval capabilities in the Black Sea.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist activists on Saturday demanding Britain pull its military and naval forces out of Ukraine and the Black Sea after evidence emerged that Canadian, and possibly also British, forces are training members of Ukrainian Nazi battalions.
    London comrades joined the picketers, which included members of Socialist Fight and the Consistent Democrats and British Posadists, opposite the Prime Minister’s home in Downing Street. Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU), International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity and other labour movement organisations also took part in the protest.
    Members of the Centuria battalion, who use Nazi salutes and praise Nazi German SS units, brag about “co-operation with foreign colleagues”. Ukraine’s fascist militias played an important part in the coup that overthrew the legitimate government in 2014 and were incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard the following year, and the fact that Centuria gunmen are now serving as Ukrainian army officers suggests they are being increasingly integrated into the regular armed forces.
    Amidst Western mass media hysteria about a planned "Russian invasion", with senior US and British officials claiming Vladimir Putin is preparing to invade Ukraine, the Kiev regime has deployed weapons banned under the Minsk-2 agreement including attack drones, tanks, heavy artillery and rocket systems, against the anti-fascist Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics that drove the fascists out of the Donbas in 2014.
    The Russians have dismissed talk of a Russian invasion as “baseless” and "absurd". But sending NATO military advisers to Ukraine could potentially lead to an escalation of tension across the “line of contact” or ceasefire line between the Donbas republics and Ukraine.
    Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said: "We are deeply concerned about the provocative actions of the Ukrainian armed forces on the line of contact and preparations for a possible military solution, an attempt to resolve the Donbas problem by force," adding that nothing provocative has been done by the Donbas republics in the region.
    Meanwhile Alexei Reznikov, who says the Donbas rebels are "a cancerous tumour on Ukraine's body which needs to be surgically removed”, has been appointed as Ukraine's Defence Minister. His top adviser is the notorious Dmitry Yarosh, the former leader of the neo-Nazi ‘Right Sector’ militia that led the armed coup in Ukraine in February 2014 and is modelled on the Ukrainian collaborators who served the Nazis during the German occupation during the Second World War.
    The truth is that Ukraine has become the world epicentre of fascism and white supremacy, with networks across Europe and North America. The western mass media – and sadly many on the international left – turn their blind eye to this glaring reality. Shame on them!

• Report in the Donbas communist media

British forces out of Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist campaigners in London protesting against the British government’s policies towards Ukraine.
    Last Saturday’s picket, opposite Downing Street in Whitehall, called on the Johnson government to withdraw British forces from the Ukraine and the Black Sea. They called on the British government to end all military, financial and political support for the regime in Kiev which was installed in the 2014 coup, a coup violently supported by armed, Nazi ‘Right Sector’ gangs and the rabidly anti-semitic Svoboda party. They also drew attention to the role of the fascist militias in Ukraine’s National Guard, which now legally patrol the streets of Ukraine’s cities alongside the civil police.
    Campaigners want the Johnson government and the Foreign Office to clarify their position on the lack of democracy, attacks on journalists, the closure of newspapers, TV and radio stations (most recently in February this year), and the blatant human rights violations and involvement in crime by the ‘Azov Battalion’, the ‘National Corps’ and many other violent groups with white supremacist, anti-semitic and openly Nazi beliefs.
    The National Corps’ estimated 10,000-15,000 members are legally allowed to patrol the streets of Ukraine's cities, working side by side with the Ukrainian police. Its slogan is “Strength, Welfare, Order”.
The National Corps was created by the Azov Battalion as its own political party in 2016, and its core membership came from the Azov Battalion and the Azov Civil Corps, a civilian organisation affiliated to the fascist battalion. It has gained a reputation for violence, corruption and involvement in crime
    This is of major significance for UK government policy as a British military contingent has been in Ukraine since February 2016 training members of the Ukrainian armed forces (UAF). The Azov Battalion and many other ultra-right armed militias are now part of the Ukrainian armed forces after they were admitted into the country's National Guard.
    Since 2014 the UK has had an Army contingent in Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers - quite possibly including members of the fascist militias integrated into the UAF.
    Last year the Johnson government signed a major military deal to set up new British bases in Ukraine. In September 2020 over 200 members of the British Paratroop Regiment joined military exercises in southern Ukraine. Last month the UK and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Implementation for the “joint UK-Ukraine design and build of warships (and) construction of two naval bases” on board the very same ship, HMS Defender, which sailed through waters Russia considers its own on 23rd June, causing a major diplomatic incident.
    Members of the New Communist Party of Britain, Socialist Fight, Third World Solidarity, Communist Fight, Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine, International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity and other labour movement organisations took part in the protest. Not the first and certainly not the last. NCP London organiser Theo Russell says more solidarity actions are on their way, following the easing of the lockdown, to raise public awareness about what is really going on in the Ukraine and the Donbas. 

 

• Report in the Donetsk communist journal
  

Stand by Ukraine anti-fascists!

By New Worker correspondent

Local supporters of the Ukrainian resistance held a lightning picket outside the Ukraine embassy in West London on Sunday. They paid tribute to those that fell resisting the fascist mobs who overthrew the legitimate Ukrainian government in February 2014.
    The puppet Kiev regime serves Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism and elevates Stepan Bandera, a war-time Nazi collaborator who fled to West Germany following Hitler’s defeat, who was assassinated in 1959. But anti-fascist uprisings soon led to the establishment of the Donbas people’s republics and the underground resistance in the rest of Ukraine.
    London solidarity campaigners include members of the Labour Party, NCP and Socialist Fight as well as supporters of the Stop the War coalition.

• Report in the Donbas communist media
  

NCP and Donbas communists hold Skype conference

By Vperyod correspondent

On 4th September, a Skype conference took place between Boris Litvinov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic (CPDPR) and the General Secretary of the New Communist Party of Britain Andy Brooks.
     Mikhail Kukhtin, the head of the international department of the CPDPR and Theo Russell, a member of the Central Committee of the NCPB also took part in the discussion.
    During the discussion, Boris Litvinov informed the British comrades about the current state of affairs in the Donetsk People's Republic and the situation on the line of contact. In particular, he stressed that the diplomatic efforts of the participants in the Minsk process managed to achieve a ceasefire.
    But, despite the agreement reached, provocations by the Ukrainian army and its advance into the neutral zone and the side of the DPR people's militia positions pose a threat to a fragile truce. This is not the first time such tactics of the Ukrainian side, the use of a truce to create favourable conditions for the further unleashing of hostilities, have been used.
    Andy Brooks informed Boris Litvinov about the work of the New Communist Party of Britain and its supporters to support the struggle of the people of Donbas to strengthen their statehood. At rallies and demonstrations held by left wing movements in Britain, the communists carry flags and symbols of the DPR, express demands to the British government about non-interference in the internal conflict of Ukraine and the former part of it which has embarked on the path of self-determination and regularly cover their activities on the pages of their weekly, the New Worker. According to Andy Brooks, there are up to 100 British military advisers in the Donbas who train the Ukrainian army according to NATO standards.
    A significant place in the conversation was taken by the discussion of the question of the entry of the DPR Communist Party into the Solidnet international organisation of communist and workers' parties.
    Mykhaylo Khuktin confirmed that there have been talks between Boris Litvinov and some leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine. He said “Our striving to join Solidnet was welcomed at least by some of them, although the overall situation remains complicated”.
    The British comrades were interested in the issue of the Donetsk communists’ relationship with other communist parties that are members of the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP-KPSS).
    Boris Litvinov said that the CPDPR is an official observer in the SKP-KPSS, which actively participates in the work of this organisation and maintains close comradely ties with all participating parties.
    A special relationship has developed between the Donetsk communists and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Six years ago, the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov, provided support and gave valuable recommendations during the creation of the CPDPR.
    The Communist Party of the Russian Federation provides significant humanitarian aid to the people of the Donetsk republic, especially its children. The General Secretary of the New Communist Party of Britain expressed the hope that in deciding the question of admitting the CPDPR to Solidnet, the Communist Parties of the SKP-KPSS will show their support.
    During the conversation, issues of the international situation were also discussed and the positions of the communists in various areas of party activity were expressed. Thus, the communists of the DPR and Britain agreed that the events in Belarus are an attempt by the West to first subjugate and then destroy the sovereignty of the state, toturn the Republic of Belarus into another springboard for an offensive against Russia.
    At the end of the Skype conference, the parties thanked each other for exchanging views on all the topics discussed and agreed to hold the next meeting in November.

MH17 Call for Justice!

by New Worker correspondent 

In July 2014 a Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine during the fighting between the Donbas partisans and the fascist militias loyal to the US puppet regime in Kiev.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and all 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. A Dutch-led investigation said the plane had been downed by a missile fired by the Donbas resistance or the Russians – a claim that the imperialist media has unquestioningly repeated in its efforts to demonise Russia and the anti-fascist Ukrainian resistance movements. 

            Three Russians and one Ukrainian are going to be tried in their absence on 9th March in The Hague. But there’s another side to the story and that was heard at the Conway Hall in London on Tuesday when Bonanza Media and the Global Rights for Peaceful People movement screened a documentary that challenges the whole Western narrative on the tragedy.

The film presents massive evidence that the Dutch-led investigation into the crash was a total fraud which had already decided that Russia or the Donbas partisans were to blame. A tech expert showed that phone intercepts by Kiev regime intelligence officers purporting to record Donbas partisan commanders talking about the event on the day were spliced together from unconnected conversations. Huge pieces of crash site debris were not picked up by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which refused to include Malaysia in the JIT for six months.

MH17: Call for Justice is the first detailed documentary to challenge the Dutch-NATO version of events about the tragedy. It includes wide-reaching and exclusive interviews, including the Malaysian prime minister, one of the suspects accused of shooting down the MH17, and the Malaysian colonel who travelled to Ukraine to collect the black boxes. There are also testimonies from witnesses, evidence from experts, and previously unseen footage from the crash site in Ukraine.

• MH17 Call for Justice video