The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 29th September 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 29th September 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Russian missiles and drones rained down on Ukraine last week striking military targets across the country and almost completely destroying the sea port in central Odessa and the nearby Ukrainian Operational Command South naval base. Massive Russian strikes have also disrupted communications and rail and road transport and almost brought the Ukrainian national grid to breaking point.
Ukrainian drones have hit Crimea. One their missiles struck the Headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sebastopol last week. But not many get through the Russian air defences.
The havoc of those that do is far outweighed by the damage inflicted on the Ukrainians by the Russians. On one night alone last week military targets in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine were hit and the power network was cut in five regions. The resumption of massive strikes could lead to the collapse of the entire power supply system.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops have given up the futile struggle and laid down their arms in recent week.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian troops have surrendered using a special radio channel, 149.200 call sign ‘Volga’, that was set up for this purpose by the Russian military during the summer.
But fierce fighting continues along the front that runs from the Donbas to the Black Sea as the Russians launch probing attacks in the east while the Ukrainians battle to hold onto the handful of villages they’ve taken at much cost over the last three months.
Unconfirmed reports say that Russia’s ‘foreign legion’, the Wagner Force, has returned to the front. And on the diplomatic front the Ukrainians suffered more setbacks at the United Nations while a stunt at the Canadian parliament backfired leading to the resignation of the Speaker of their House of Commons.
The Ukrainian leader, Vladimir Zelensky, may have hoped for a warm welcome at the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York. But the hall was half empty with many delegations – not just the Russians and their close allies – finding better things to do than listen to his rants.
It was much the same when Zelensky went to Washington to lobby for more aid.
Zelensky did get another huge tranche of weapons from his American masters – but not as much as he wanted. During his last visit to the US capital in December 2022, Zelensky got a rapturous response to his speech to both houses of Congress. This time round he wasn’t invited. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not even present to greet him upon his arrival at the congressional building, the Capitol, last week. He told reporters that “Zelensky asked us for a joint session; we just didn’t have time”.
Zelensky, however, later got a hero’s welcome in the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. But it all turned sour when it transpired that an elderly Ukrainian immigrant in the visitors’ gallery, hailed by the Speaker as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” who had fought “for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” had, in fact, been a member of the Ukrainian SS.
Meanwhile Foreign Office officials have confirmed reports of secret Anglo-Russian talks in a number of foreign capitals over the last 18 months. The meetings, said to be in a number of locations including Vienna and New York, covered international security, grain shortages and nuclear safety. But the Foreign Office stresses that at no point has the UK sought to enter peace talks around finding a diplomatic end to the conflict.
Winter is coming, however. Many are talking about a Russian winter offensive to drive the Ukrainians out of what they still hold in the Donbas. Whether that happens remains to be seen but it’s certainly being taken seriously in Kiev. Or as Zelensky said in an unguarded moment when he was lobbying senators in Washington last week: “If we don’t get help, we will lose the war.”