Our friends at the Groups against Capital and Nation have written a piece on the conflict in Ukraine. It was published on 21 February and thus does not cover the latest developments but it is good explainer for what is going on.
“If you talk, you don’t shoot”, says the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. You might feel reassured by that, since rarely have there been so many top-level meetings and video conferences between heads of state from all over the world as there were in Spring 2022. However, the connection between diplomacy and war is rather different from what the lords and ladies of war in charge keep claiming. Diplomatically, they tell each other what they want and define “red lines” which, if crossed, they are willing to wage war over.
This text is about the reasons why Russia, Ukraine and the NATO countries are gearing up for war. For this, we do not have to search for hidden interests working in secret behind the scenes, but we can rely entirely on the official announcements. They give us everything we need to understand their reasons. Of course, we have to distinguish between what the heads of state communicate to each other and what is addressed more to their own populations. That the opposing side lies, cheats, is the sole aggressor and thus simply “evil” is what everyone hears in their home propaganda. Yet, this tells us nothing about the war, except that our own state is “good” and cannot help but to “react” with preparations for or even acts of war, despite really not wanting to. For many, these are moral reasons to keep their fingers crossed for their own state, to demonise the other, to willingly accept the coming economic hardships or to offer themselves as cannon fodder.
This text deals only marginally with these justifications of war. Here we only ask you to suspend the question of who is good or bad for a few minutes and to simply ask: What is happening? Afterwards, you can return to questions of who you want to root for - spoiler, we recommend: Nobody.
https://antinational.org/en/if-you-want-peace-prepare-for-war-russia-ukraine-nato-eu/
A pretty good background text
A pretty good background text examining the interplay and different sources of power between the USA, Russia and the main EU nations, delivered in the now usual non-emotive style of its authors in an otherwise increasingly dangerous and painful experience for fellow workers in Russia and Ukraine.
Edit/PS: Perhaps might have mentioned the 2-way facing role of Turkey as a member of NATO in current and likely response to any 'united' response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by the EU and NATO.