Will U.S. send heavy weapons to Ukraine?

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The danger of direct Western military inter­ vention in Ukraine remains palpable follow­ ing the rebels’ dramatic seizure of Debaltseve in mid-February. The Obama administration, which has already sent over $118 million in “non-lethal” equipment to Ukraine, is deliber­ ating whether to contribute heavy weaponry, or even troops, to the war in Ukraine’s east.

Many in Congress, as well as top Pentagon staff members, are pushing strongly to send weapons. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, told a Senate committee on March 4, “I think we should absolutely consider lethal aid and it ought to be in the context of NATO allies because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s ultimate objective is to fracture NATO.”

The Obama administration, on the other hand, has been more guarded in its responses—at least in pub­ lic. On March 4, Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told mem­ bers of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that the decision to send heavy arms, as well as tightening sanctions against Russia, would depend on whether or not the administration judges that the current cease-fire is being implemented.

While administrative figures have not yet commit­ ted themselves to increased military aid, they have prepared the ground with Cold War rhetoric. At a se­ curity conference in Munich in February, Vice Presi­ dent Joe Biden lashed out against Russia and warned against appeasement: “This is a moment where the U.S. and Europe must stand firm. Russia cannot be al­ lowed to redraw the map of Europe.”

German and French leaders have been less bellicose in their language than their American counterparts. In early February, as alarms sounded that the Obama administration was moving toward arming the Kiev regime with missiles, German Chancellor Ang­ lea Merkel and French President François Hollande were able to take the initiative in cobbling together a conference in Minsk, Belarus, which agreed to the cease-fire. Merkel told supporters that her country and France would continue to work for the “territo­ rial integrity” of Ukraine, “but we want to do it with Russia, not against Russia.”

This more cautious stance reflects the deepening economic crisis in Europe and the dependency of Eu­ rope on Russian oil and gas. For example, Germany imports almost 39 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Moreover, Germany is responsible for 30 per­ cent of EU exports to Russia—mainly vehicles and machinery. Merkle’s government is afraid that tighter sanctions against Russia, let alone military interven­ tion, might push Moscow to retaliate with sanctions against German exports.

But following the rout of Ukrainian troops in De­ baltseve, and flare-ups in other locations that appear to violate the terms of the Minsk cease-fire pact, the United States has refused to back away from the mili­ tary option.

On Feb. 19, major newspapers in Germany, includ­ ing Das Bild and Der Spiegel, leaked the contents of a recent Munich meeting in which top U.S. officials and military generals, speaking in private among them­ selves, were explicit in advocating that heavy weap­ ons to be sent to Ukraine. Victoria Nuland attempted to assuage any misgivings they might have had about frayed ties with Germany and France: “We’re not go­ ing to send any four divisions into Ukraine, as the Eu­ ropeans fear. It’s only a relatively moderate delivery of anti-tank weapons.”

The entry into Debaltseve by troops of the rebelproclaimed Donestsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR) was a stunning defeat for the Kiev re­ gime and its U.S. backers. Debaltseve is a key junction in the main railway line between the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his top officers made it a badge of honor to hold the town, despite the fact that their soldiers were surrounded and outgunned. The Novorossia Today website stated that DPR authorities had repeatedly asked the Kiev forces to lay down their arms, and had left a corridor open for them to leave the town—but Poroshenko and the military brass would not allow their troops to surrender.

Later, President Poroshenko boasted in a taped statement that Ukrainian armed forces in the area had left Debaltseve according to a preconceived plan. “Debaltseve was under our control, there was no en­ circlement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organized manner with all the heavy weaponry,” he said. However, CNN news footage showed a scene that was far different from the president’s claims. Shells of burnt-out tanks and armored trucks lined the road. Artillery shells, and even missiles, were still lying in their packing crates where fleeing Ukrainian troops had left them.

Hospitals in Artemovsk, a town to the north that is still held by the Kiev government, were filled with wounded men. Interviews with soldiers in Arte­ movsk revealed that many were filled with anger at their own commanders, while others were in despair. The men told of striving to withstand shelling day and night, enduring food shortages, and feeling they had been left there to die. “We were praying all the time, and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times,” a soldier told a correspondent for the New York Daily News.

The Feb. 19 London Independent described the scene in Artemovsk: “Many soldiers were in a demor­ alized and drunken state. Shellshocked soldiers from the battle in Debaltseve wandered the streets through the day Wednesday [Feb. 18], before beginning to drink heavily. By Wednesday evening, gunshots were ringing out on the central square. One man stood, swaying, on the sidewalk mumbling to himself.

“Soldiers who had escaped from Debaltseve after weeks of shelling were commandeering taxi cabs without payment. It was not clear that all of them had been given places to sleep, and one group stood si­ lently, shivering on a street outside the Hotel Ukraine. And at Biblios, an upscale restaurant in Artemivsk, soldiers staggered about in the dining room, order­ ing brandy for which they had no money to pay, and then firing shots into the ceiling as other guests qui­ etly fled the premises.”

These scenes of demoralized Kiev troops emphasize the lack of popular support for the war. In February, Poroshenko authorized a new draft of men under the age of 27. But many families have resisted such callups, stating emphatically that their young men will not report for duty.

Since the Kiev government, which came to power in a U.S. and European Union-backed coup in May 2014, has been unable to depend on draftees to fight with any enthusiasm, it has chosen to rely on volunteer formations like the Azov Battalion, which include right-wing ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis. While the fighting was going on around Debaltseve, the Azov Battalion was spearheading a Ukrainian gov­ ernment drive to take back territory along the Black Sea coast, near Mariupol. Azov and similar paramili­ tary groups have been charged with rights abuses and war crimes.

Civilians in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east have suffered horribly in the war. As Kiev troops streamed out of Debaltseve, a middle-aged woman near the town told CNN, “Of course, it’s better now that we are not being shelled—but we have no pensions.” The Kiev government has halted all pensions and budget­ ary payments to the rebel region.

On Feb. 19 Ukraine deepened the distress of ci­ vilians by switching off the natural gas pipeline to the Luhansk area. Kiev had warned in the past that it would cut off gas and electricity to the Russianspeaking region unless it received payment. In this case, however, the Ukrainian state gas company side­ stepped taking blame for the shutdown by alleging that it had been caused by “shelling and explosions” that the rebels had fired. Parliament Speaker Andrei (Left) Woman bikes past damaged military vehicles in war zone of eastern Ukraine.

Purgin of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) said that his government would switch to using gas from Russia, which has agreed to send humanitarian fuel supplies.

Increased military involvement by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine will do nothing but prolong the war and increase the country’s suffer­ ing—while drawing ever closer to a direct confron­ tation with Russia. Concerned people in the United States must demand: U.S. hands off Ukraine! n ... Tate-Brown (continued from page 2: “Who killed Brandon Tate-Brown?”)

torney have been permitted to view the wit­ ness statements for themselves. Mildenburg told the Philadelphia Daily News on March 1 that the files reveal that none of the witnesses saw Tate-Brown with a gun. One witness stat­ ed that as the cops trained their weapons on Tate-Brown and demanded to be told where his gun was, the victim claimed that he had no gun at all.

“We’re trying to uncover the truth,” Milden­ berg told the Daily News. “But when the offi­ cers are constantly changing the story and the police department is releasing various sto­ ries at different points in time, it leads to the question of whether the investigation is being handled with integrity or whether details and embellishments are being added to protect the officers involved and paint the shooting as jus­ tified.”

In meetings, rallies, and marches, protesters have supported the demands of Tanya BrownDickerson and her attorney that the police re­ lease all the evidence about what happened on Dec. 15 so they can obtain justice. On Feb.

21, about 100 protesters braved falling snow and freezing temperatures to rally at the site of Brandon Tate-Brown’s killing; they then marched to the district police station with their demands.

Tanya Brown-Dickerson spoke at Philadel­ phia’s Martin Luther King Day protest rally on Jan. 19, where she informed the protesters about efforts to obtain justice for her son. One of the key demands of the rally, sponsored by the MLK-DARE coalition, was “End Stop and Frisk!” The coalition’s next major event will be an April 4 March Against Poverty; protest­ ers will proceed through a section of Philadel­ phia’s Black community to a rally near Broad and Erie Streets. n SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 2015 3

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Michael Moore / Union Advocate (Left) Airport worker Kip Hedges addresses Feb. 15 meeting in Minneapolis for 15 Now.

(Below) Socialist Kshama Sawant.

The pollsters note, “Sawant has the strongest favor­ able rating at the district level—her favorable in her district is 11 points higher than it is citywide and her unfavorable is 9 points lower.”

Sawant has consistently explained her positions in terms of class against class. “A recent poll,” she told a local TV station, “shows that 60% of Americans are convinced that the two big-business parties system is not working for us and we need an alternative.”

No matter how broad a coalition 15 Now builds in Minneapolis, Sawant warned, opposition will be fierce and well-financed. In Seattle opponents lamented the impact of a $15 minimum wage on small businesses— a public relations campaign underwritten covertly and ironically by the city’s biggest corporations. “Sud­ denly, you found Starbucks lamenting the fate of local coffee shops,” Sawant said.

In response, 15 Now tapped into popular frustra­ tion with a global economy and political structures that seem rigged in favor of corporations and the very