Introduction

Dear friends,

This event is taking place at an extremely important time. The rise of Donald Trump and his oligarch friends into the White House has enormous consequences not only for the American working class and many minority groups in the US, but also for global politics and the people of Palestine and Ukraine.

The idea behind this event is to give the floor to our friends in the Ukrainian left, and I am very honored that you are all here. We want your voices to be heard and also to focus on issues we know are important in your work such as workers’ rights and feminism, but that are overlooked in the mainstream news coverage from Ukraine. But there are three points I want to make in my own introduction. They are about the current situation, the future of Ukraine and the positions of the left.

Especially the extreme right but also some other voices are saying that we should be happy that someone is finally trying to put an end to the war. Some have been saying throughout the war that we need a diplomatic solution and that military aid is only prolonging the war.

This analysis is utterly wrong and in a dangerous way legitimizes the role and policies of both Trump and Putin. I will therefore focus on points I think are crucial for the left at this moment.

Firstly,

The ideological alliance between Trump and Putin is one of the most dangerous developments we have seen in global politics in a long time. It will strengthen authoritarianism elsewhere, as we already see in the cases of Israel and Turkey.

Donald Trump is currently pressing Ukraine into negotiations, because he wants to achieve the role as a peacemaker in this war. But it matters what kind of peace, and how this peace is conceived. The credibility of possible future peace negotiations has already been compromised by Russia pulling the rug under US negotiators' statements in recent days.

The US administration has also already weakened Ukraines position at the negotiating table by publicly excluding several options for Ukraine’s future and US involvement in it. Trump has also clearly shown he is willing to pressure Ukraine, by demanding access to the country's natural resources and halting the sharing of intelligence and arms deliveries.

If peace in Ukraine comes about through two authoritarian leaders deciding on its terms, without considering Ukraine’s needs or sovereignty, this will strengthen Putin and Trump and the authoritarian rule that they represent, and their power to decide over others' affairs.

Even though US and Russia have always acted in their own interest, many times in blatant conflict with international law, is there still a significant difference when it comes to the shameless openness through which Putin and Trump at the moment manifest their superiority as large powers and their right to take whatever they want into their own hands.

The strengthening of this ideology and of these leaders does not make the world safer or more stable for anyone else. It leads us into a world where strength, violence and size decide the rules even more strongly than before, coupled with an authoritarian view of respect for democracy and human rights as a weakness.

Trump has stated that he wants to take control of both the Panama Canal and Greenland. Putin has already occupied Crimea and is currently occupying a fifth of Ukraine's territory. We are currently witnessing how bold both Netanyahu and Erdogan have become in their own authoritarianism.

These men and their policies represent 21st-century imperialism and colonialism: that when you are big, ruthless and powerful enough, you can do whatever you want. That is why they constitute such a grave danger to all of us.

The second point I want to make is that we are currently witnessing how what happens at the battlefield and what happens in the realm of diplomacy is linked to each other. Those of us who have advocated weapons support have made this point many times. It is not about weapons OR diplomacy. It is about creating conditions for a just negotiating process. Ukraine needs weapons to be able to defend itself, and Ukraine needs to defend itself successfully, so that Putin will have an interest in negotiating. Just saying that we need a diplomatic solution to the conflict completely ignores this reality.

The current situation proves my point. Ukraine accepted the ceasefire deal presented by the US administration but Putin did not. He only gave a halfhearted promise to cease attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, at the same time continuing attacks on civilian infrastructure. Putin is playing time because he does not feel enough pressure at the front, and does not care about the lives lost in this war of his. This is why we need continued military support for Ukraine, not as an alternative to a diplomatic solution, but as a prerequisite for a more balanced negotiating position.

The third and final point I want to make is that it is also time for us to discuss the future of Ukraine. This question will be one of the issues on the table in the negotiations and the crucial question regarding Ukraine’s future and the prevention of new wars is what political community or security architecture Ukraine will become a part of.

The U.S. has publicly ruled out NATO membership, and it also seems unrealistic given that some areas of Ukraine might remain under Russian occupation.

For these reasons, I see EU membership with additional security guarantees, as the most viable option, of course on the condition that it is supported by the Ukrainian people. The left needs to start discussing how the integration of Ukraine into the European community will take place, and how we can put pressure on safeguarding labor rights, on fighting corruption, on strengthening civil society and at the same time push back on neoliberal reforms by the right wing.

For us to be able to do this working together, it is more important than ever that we have opportunities for debate and discussion, such as the event today.

Welcome everyone once more.