Clara Weiss
After the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, last week, and a major expansion of NATO arms shipment to Ukraine, the imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is escalating further, with Zelensky now threatening an “end of all negotiations” with Russia.
The exact circumstances of the sinking of the Moskva remain unclear. While Kiev is claiming that it had fired two Neptune missiles that hit the ship—a claim supported by the US—the Kremlin is insisting that an explosion on board and “stormy seas” accounted for its sinking. Whatever the truth, however, the loss of the Moskva is universally regarded as a massive military humiliation and setback for Russia. It is the most significant loss any navy has experienced in decades and has been compared to the catastrophe suffered by the Russian navy in the war with Japan in 1904-05.
Motivated no doubt by the attempt to offset the catastrophic impression of the sinking of the Moskva, and in response to the endless provocations by the imperialist powers that have funneled weapons worth billions of dollars into the Ukrainian army, Russia has escalated air strikes on targets across Ukraine, and has made a concerted effort to seize Mariupol.
As of Sunday, Russian forces have reportedly destroyed an ammunition factory near Kiev and seized large parts of the southeastern city with the exception of territory around the Azovstal factory. According to the Russian major general Igor Konashenkov, 2,500 fighters affiliated with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion were still holding out at the Azovstal factory, including 400 foreign mercenaries, who had been recruited mostly from Europe and Canada.
Kiev rejected an ultimatum issued by the Russian army to the remaining Ukrainian forces to surrender by noon on Sunday. Ukraine’s prime minister has insisted that the troops would “fight until the end.”
In response to threats by Russian officials that forces still fighting in Mariupol would be “eliminated,” Zelensky warned that the destruction of “our guys will put an end to all negotiations with Russia.”
Mariupol has been under siege for seven weeks. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding among the 100,000 civilians that have remained in the city and have reportedly experienced serious shortages of electricity, water and food. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine about the establishment of corridors to evacuate the civilian population, including from Mariupol, have repeatedly ended in failure.
With a pre-war population of 400,000, Mariupol is the second largest city in East Ukraine, the so-called Donbass, and is of key strategic and economic significance. It is located on the northeastern cost of the Sea of Azov and, up until the war, much of Ukraine’s imports and exports went through its ports.
If taken by Russia, the city would form a critical part of a land bridge between the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea and the other territories controlled by Russia in the Donbass, around Donetsk and Lugansk. Such a scenario would be a major military setback for Ukraine and create significant economic and logistical challenges for the Zelensky government in the continuation of the war.
It is widely acknowledged that the Azov Battalion, which includes hardcore neo-Nazis who admire Adolf Hitler and are dreaming of a worldwide battle for the supremacy of the “white race,” has played the central role in the battle of Mariupol since the beginning of the war this year. In the civil war that erupted after the US-backed February 2014 coup in Kiev, a bloody battle between far-right militias like the Right Sector and the Azov Battalion and pro-Russian separatists ended with the city falling to the Kiev regime. Later that year, the Azov Battalion was integrated into Ukraine’s National Guard and set up its official headquarters in Mariupol.
In an interview with local media, Zelensky has indicated that the Azov fighters have effectively been given carte blanche by the government. He said, “‘the Azovtsy’ are already heroes and no one would forbid them to take certain measures.” Zelensky has awarded commanders of the Azov Battalion orders of “heroes of Ukraine,” and his government has encouraged a recruitment campaign by Azov aimed at attracting far-right forces from all over the world to fight in the war .
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, sitting in front the Ukrainian national flag and a flag with the emblem of the Nazi collaborationist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Zelensky acknowledged that “all of the world, all of the countries have to be worried” that Russia might use nuclear weapons.
However, far from advocating a de-escalation of the conflict, he echoed the provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden who alleged last week that Russia was perpetrating a “genocide” against Ukrainians, and demanded “stronger, more destructive weapons” for Ukraine and a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas. He also warned that Ukraine would not surrender the Eastern part of the country with Russia reportedly preparing a major offensive in the Donbass, set to begin within the coming days.
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