The United National Antiwar Coalition issued the following statement on the eve of demonstrations and conferences against the NATO Meeting in Madrid, Spain, June 25-26.
UNAC calls for an end to NATO expansion and an end to NATO. NATO is not a defensive alliance; it is offensive as was shown by its war on Afghanistan, its surrounding of Russia and in this present U.S./NATO proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
Steps toward war
In 1991, the U.S. promised to not move NATO east of Germany. To date it has moved into 14 of these countries. In 2014 the U.S. helped orchestrate a coup that overthrew the elected government of Victor Yanukovych, who they felt was too open to good relations with Russia. That coup banned Yanukovych’s party, the largest in the country. The second largest party, the Communist Party, was also outlawed, but extreme right-wing Nazi movements were welcomed into the government. The first act of the coup government was to ban the Russian language.
Protests against the coup sprung up throughout the country. In Odessa, the protesters were attacked by pro-Nazi gangs; 48 people were killed and hundreds wounded. In other places, the protests were put down, but in Crimea the people voted to leave Ukraine and return to Russia, which they had been part of for hundreds of years prior to the 1950s. Two sections of the Donbass in Eastern Ukraine declared their independence from Kiev and formed the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
The right-wing and Nazi gangs formed into militias and tried to put down the protests and instill fear to stop opposition to the coup government. They were armed and trained by the U.S. and its NATO allies, integrated into the Ukrainian military and led a war against the independent areas of Donbass. By the beginning of this year, 14,000 people had been killed in that war.
At the beginning of 2022, Ukraine started massing troops on the border of Donbass and increased the shelling of the independent areas. Draconian sanctions were applied by the U.S. and other NATO countries to try to bring down the Russian economy. At the same time Russia recognized the independent republics; and when Ukrainian forces moved into these areas, Russia moved into Ukraine.
This conflict is not between Russia and Ukraine, it is a war between U.S./NATO and Russia, one in which they are using Ukraine as a proxy and are prepared to fight to the last Ukrainian. This U.S./NATO war is against a major nuclear power.
It is a war that brings us closer to a possible nuclear confrontation that could destroy us all. NATO does not need to be expanded; it needs to be abolished.
No to NATO!
No to NATO Expansion!
No weapons to Ukraine!
End the sanctions against Russia!
Money for human needs not war!
www.UNACpeace.org
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