War in Ukraine, a leftist perspective

After one month of war the situation in Ukraine intensifies: the military confrontation goes on, people keep dying, over 4 million have escaped the country. At the same time Putin’s aggression seems to have stalled marking the beginning of a new phase of the conflict. This is due to the resistance that Ukrainian army and people have been able to put up: since the first moments of the war we have witnessed an unexpected and unprecedented mass mobilization by civilians, volunteers and even foreign citizens opposing Russian troops. Similarly, in Russia many have taken to the streets to protest Putin’s “special operation” while in Belarus dissidents and activists have managed to sabotage Russian manoeuvres.

How to interpret the events so far? What comes next? What does it mean to advocate for peace in such a context? What position should the international left adopt in the face of this aggression? We think that the only viable starting point to answer this questions is to listen to the voices of those who are directly involved and are trying to resist and build solidarity in multiple ways.

This is why we have invited Nina Potarska (activist of the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom in Ukraine), Ilya Budraitskis (author of Dissidents Among the Dissidents,activist and political analyst from Russia) and Vitalie Sprinceana (journalist for the website Plaztforma.md, sociologist and activist from Moldova) to discuss the unfolding events and to reflect on the possibility of building a transnational movement of solidarity with the people fighting against the aggression.