U.S. aids brutal attack on eastern Ukrainian cities

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Civilian casualties are quickly mounting as U.S.supported Ukrainian troops redouble their offensive to capture the country’s rebellious eastern provinces. United Nations officials put the death toll in the region since mid-June at over 1500 civilians and combatants, with 3500 wounded. More than 285,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the most recent fighting. The Russian Red Cross has urged the evacua­ tion of children from the war zone, observing that the region faces a severe humanitarian catastrophe.

The pro-Western government in Kiev is escalating the war effort after having barely averted a severe par­ liamentary crisis at the end of July. The dispute in the Rada (parliament) was sparked in part by unease over the harsh terms of Ukraine’s austerity agreement with the European Union.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk offered to resign after two parties—the fascist Svoboda and the Ukrai­ nian Democratic Alliance for Reform—had withdrawn from the ruling coalition during a debate over Yatse­ nuk’s budget bills. One of the bills called for a 1.5 per­ cent income tax hike in order to finance the war effort. The vote on July 31 was 16 for accepting Yatsenuk’s resignation, 109 against, and 325 who decided to stay home or not vote. The sitting parliament then voted to approve the bills—including fulfillment of the coun­ try’s obligations under the dictates of the EU’s bail-out agreement.

The agreement with the EU will hit working people hard with major cutbacks and layoffs. Of course, those were precisely the terms according to which the U.S. and the EU helped to shoehorn the Kiev government into power by means of a coup last February. In the long run, the Western powers view Ukraine as becom­ ing a complete vassal to imperialism, both economi­ cally and politically.

As part of their game plan, the U.S. and its allies have joined Kiev in blaming the discontent in eastern Ukraine on alleged intervention by Vladimir Putin’s regime. This has been the prime excuse for a series of U.S.-initiated economic sanctions against Russia, which Japan and the major European countries have largely signed onto. The latest U.S. sanctions target Russian banks and the oil and defense industries.

In his comments to The Economist magazine on Aug.

12 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2014 (Left) A rally in the beseiged city of Donetsk in early August.

the public do not conclusively demon­ strate that the damage to the plane is consistent with what would be typically inflicted by a BUK missile.

Likewise, no evidence has been pre­ sented to back up the Obama adminis­ tration’s assertion that Russia fomented the rebellion in eastern Ukraine and that it resolutely continues to arm the rebels. Leaders of the rebel groupings have repeatedly called upon Russia to come to their aid, but their trust in the Putin regime has not been reciprocated to any great extent by Russia.

The facts show that the rebellion against the Kiev government grew out of real fears of political repression. Soon after the February coup, resent­ ment rose in the country’s largely Rus­ sian-speaking eastern provinces when the newly installed Ukrainian parlia­ ment passed legislation limiting Rus­ sian language rights. Although the law was rescinded after protests, attacks by Ukrainian ultra-nationalist and fascist forces—most notably the May 2 mas­ sacre of at least 42 anti-government protesters in Odessa—greatly enflamed the outrage felt by Russian speakers, and helped to fuel the armed rebellion.

As we go to press, Kiev authorities have promised to “storm” Donetsk, a city of close to 1 million. Heavily populated civilian neighborhoods have come under attack by artillery and airplanes. And Kiev ground forces—bolstered by ultra-right and fascist volunteers as well as by freshly called-up re­ servists and draftees—have almost surrounded the city, which has been in the hands of rebel fighters for many months.

On Aug. 5, Agence France-Presse reporter Anna Mal­ pas filed an article in which she described the streets of central Donetsk as being almost deserted. Booms from artillery and mortars were constantly heard. Most shops, cafes, and libraries were closed; their windows were taped to minimize the glass shattering from bomb shrapnel. The only place where she found crowds of people was in the ornate Stalin-era railway station; many had gathered there to flee the city by train.

“They are bombing—that’s why we are getting far away from here,” a woman named Lyubov, who had fled from a nearby town, told the AFP reporter. “Our house burnt down and our neighbor’s too,” said Yuri, from the town of Shakhtarsk. “The whole street was bombed. We are going to Moscow, to my daughter’s place.”

“The situation is worse every day,” said Olga, a travel agent, one of the few people out on the streets. She said her family had fled their home near Donetsk air­ port to stay with friends in the city center after three weeks of heavy bombardment. “I ran with the kids under a hail of bullets,” she said, as she watched her two-year-old son play nearby. “It’s like in a film. It’s scary of course.”

As they slowly advance, Ukrainian government troops have largely cut off Donetsk from land travel to Luhansk—with 400,000 people, the second largest city in the east. Artillery fire and airstrikes have halted water, telephone, and electricity service in Luhansk. An AP report from Aug. 4 stated, “Store shelves are emptying fast, and those who haven’t managed to flee must drink untreated tap water. With little medicine left, doctors are sending patients home.

“Shelling is a daily occurrence and the targets appar­ ently quite random. On Saturday, eight buildings were damaged by rockets. These included a school, a super­ (continued on page 7, in “The Marxist analysis of women’s oppression”)