ACTION ALERT:
No War with Russia; No NATO Expansion
Massachusetts Peace Action
BOSTON (January 26, 2022) — President Biden just ordered 8,500 members of the US military on high alert in Eastern Europe. The president is sending more airplanes and warships to the area, and heavy weapons from NATO states are arriving in Ukraine today. This is the opposite of what is needed during this crisis. We should be tamping down tensions, not ratcheting them up!
Statements from President Biden himself have been unclear and dangerous. He has said an invasion of Ukraine is “imminent.” That kind of careless talk can lead to war.
Ukraine’s leaders disagree with Washington’s bleak outlook. They’re advising calm.
The Congress isn’t helping either. They’re rushing new legislation that proposes$500 million in new “security assistance”to Ukraine and threatens new sanctions on Russia. More militaristic threats will not solve this crisis. We can’t put out this fire with gasoline!
ACTION: Contact the Biden Administration and your members of Congress. Demand Diplomacy and De-escalation in Eastern Europe! Tell President Biden to be clear. We can and must avoid war with Russia. Tell the Congress more guns, bombs, and sanctions is not the answer!
Dear President Biden:
Your administration just ordered 8,500 members of the US military on high alert in Eastern Europe. The president is sending more airplanes and warships to the area, and heavy weapons are being sent Ukraine. This is the opposite of what is needed during this crisis. We should be ratcheting down tensions not ramping them up.
Statements from your administration have been unclear and dangerous. Last week you sent mixed messages, saying of America’s response to a potential Russian invasion: “It depends… It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion.” He has also said an invasion of Ukraine is “imminent.” That kind of careless talk can lead to war.
Ukraine’s leaders disagree with your bleak outlook. They’re advising calm. We should listen to them.
Russia is asking for:
• An end to NATO military activity in eastern Europe, including Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia
• No expansion of NATO membership, particularly to Ukraine
• No intermediate or shorter-range missiles deployed close enough to hit the territory of the other side
• No military exercises of more than one military brigade in an agreed border zone
• An agreement that parties do not consider each other as adversaries and will resolve disputes peacefully
• Neither Russia nor the United States can deploy nuclear weapons outside their national territories
These proposals should be considered, rationally and negotiated as well as the offer from Turkey, a NATO member, to serve as a mediator. Ukraine seems amenable to this. In the meantime stop rattling sabers. It’s too dangerous!
Some Background:
After the end of the Cold War, NATO, the counterpart to the now 30 years defunct, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, continued to expand eastward, right up to Russia’s borders. George Kennan, the author of the United States’ Cold War containment doctrine, called this move, “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era.”His warning was correct.
Russia would like less weapons on its borders, a promise not to expand NATO further, and has offered to participate in negotiations moderated by Turkey, a NATO member since 1952. Ukraine’s ambassador welcomed that offer.
Russia is asking for:
- An end to NATO military activity in eastern Europe, including Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia
- No expansion of NATO membership, particularly to Ukraine
- No intermediate or shorter-range missiles deployed close enough to hit the territory of the other side
- No military exercises of more than one military brigade in an agreed border zone
An agreement that parties do not consider each other as adversaries and will resolve disputes peacefully
- Neither Russia nor the United States can deploy nuclear weapons outside their national territories
These proposals should be considered, rationally and negotiated.
ACTION: Tell the Congress and the Biden Administration: Stop Rattling Sabers! War is not imminent. We can choose to coexist. We can choose peace.
Appeal: No War Against the Donbass!
Stop Demonizing Russia!
BERLIN, Germany (January 26, 2022) — Against the background of the Ukraine crisis the demonization of Russia is intensifying and is now threatening to escalate openly.
Ever tougher sanctions against Russia, the disruption of trade relations with gas and oil and even payment transactions are being threatened, and a military conflict has also become a possibility.
The West uses the narrative of accusing Russia of preparing for war and planning to invade Ukraine. It is argued that Russia threatens Ukraine if it moves its troops on its own territory. This is constantly promoted in the Western media as a sign of Russia’s aggressiveness. Only a few warning voices can be heard.
In fact, there are more and more military units from the US, Canada, Great Britain and the EU inside Ukraine and along the entire western border of Russia. That is why Moscow is now demanding concrete military and legal security guarantees from the USA and from NATO.
Part of the crisis manifests itself in the difficult economic and political situation in Ukraine. Russia is demanding the establishment of substantial neutrality in the country. The Minsk II Agreement, which is recognized under international law, enables a non-violent and lasting solution to the intra-Ukrainian conflict.
The Western guarantor nations of Minsk-II, Germany and France, must finally demand that Ukraine negotiate with representatives of the Donbass republics with the aim of permanently resolving the conflict with the Donbass republics by granting them by granting them domestic autonomy.
The US, Britain and their allies must immediately end their provocations, including training Ukraine’s military, as well as halting arms sales and shipments to the country.
We call for an immediate de-escalation of the US-EU-NATO crisis before it is too late. The threat to world peace on Russia’s western border must be addressed by the United Nations and subjected to the provisions of the UN Charter and other elements of international law.
We appeal to the German government to stand by their refusal to not provide arms to Ukraine. We appeal to Germany to finally advocate at the Minsk negotiations that the intra-Ukrainian conflict parties start negotiations with each other.
We call on the US and on NATO to address Russia’s security needs under the 1997 NATO-Russia Act, which states that the right of self-determination of the participating states must not be at the expense of other participants.
We urge you to support and distribute this appeal. International solidarity is of the utmost importance, especially against the background of the Corona crisis.
ACTION: To sign the appeal please go to: https://www.dw-formmailer.de/forms.php?f=5918_117192
ACTION ALERT:
Now Is the Time to Speak Up: No War with Russia
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
(January 26, 2022) — Pictured above are Nazi death squads who hail from western Ukraine. Today they are armed, trained and directed by the US-UK-NATO. They have been sent to the eastern border of Ukraine (since the 2014 coup in Kiev) to kill fellow Ukrainian citizens whose only crime is that they are Russian-ethnic. It’s called ethnic cleansing. So far more than 14,000 have been killed. The Ukrainian Army today has 125,000 troops on the ‘line of contact’ in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine (Lugansk and Donetsk).
Time is of the essence. The US-UK-NATO are flooding Ukraine with more deadly weapons. We know that doing so does not help to de-escalate tensions.
We all need to do something to help defuse the neo-con plan in Washington to push us into another war on a false pretext.
Just this week some positive things have happened:
• The head of the German Navy was forced to resign after he said ‘Vladimir Putin deserves respect’ and that he ‘didn’t think Russia was going to invade Ukraine’. The right-wing in Germany and NATO were not happy with those comments.
• The president of Croatia (a NATO member) declared that if there was a war he would not allow troops from his country to join a US-NATO led war.
• France increasingly appears uncomfortable and Germany didn’t allow UK weapons shipments to Ukraine to be flown over German territory.
• More peace activists (and their organizations) have come alive and are engaging to oppose any war.
Here are a few ideas for action:
• Send a message to your congressional delegation. See here
• Write a letter to editor.
• Share good info on the Ukraine issue with others to help increase the knowledge base of the public.
Hold a protest vigil in your community.
• Watch this excellent documentary produced by Oliver Stone called Ukraine on Fire. Covers history of Nazi presence in western Ukraine and the situation in recent times. See here
• Read this brilliant article by Diana Johnstone about the inside-scoop on what led up to the 2014 US orchestrated coup in Kiev, Ukraine. This is one of the best articles that I have ever read on the Ukraine situation. Go here
• I try to do one or more things each day to help slow down this run-away US-UK-NATO freight train.
In peace,Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator
