ACTION ALERT: Join the March 6
Global Day of Action for Peace in Ukraine!
CODEPINK et al
(March 1, 2022) — Do you want to help stop this terrible war in Ukraine? Then let’s take action together! Join us, and people around the entire globe, as we say “No to War, Yes to Peace.”
Code Pink can help with outreach, signage, and posting the photos of your action.
This past Saturday, thousands of people joined us for an online rally to stop the war in Ukraine and say no to NATO. Speakers included Jeremy Corbyn, Vijay Prashad, French member of parliament Daniele Obono, and many others. If you missed the event or want to share it with your friends and colleagues, you can find it here.
There’s more: Read CODEPINK’s statement on the war (see below), sign the petition to President Biden (see below), and call on Congress not to allow the US to transfer weapons that will further escalate the already dangerous war.
Amid the horrors of war — according to Ukraine’s Health Ministry, over 350 civilians, including 14 children, have already been killed — there are some reasons to be optimistic. On Monday, Ukrainian and Russian delegations met at the Belarus border for negotiations. When President Putin on Sunday put Russia’s nuclear arsenal on high alert, President Biden did not respond by doing the same with the US nuclear weapons.
Most encouraging have been the hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and around the world, including inside Russia, who have taken to the streets in opposition to the war.
In solidarity with the 6,000 anti-war protesters who have been arrested in Russia, we call on the world’s peace-loving people to join us in a massive unified response to say: No to War in Ukraine; Yes to Negotiations and Peace.
During this perilous time, when further military escalation could trigger a Chernobyl radioactive meltdown or push us to the brink of nuclear annihilation, we urge President Biden and Congress to stop the flow of weapons to Ukraine, offer humanitarian assistance and safe refuge, renew lapsed arms control treaties (Anti-Ballistic Missile, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Open Skies) the US abandoned with Russia, and reject the imposition of massive sanctions that will harm the Russian people who, like us, want peace and security. Join us!
Towards peace in Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, and around the world,
Medea and the entire CODEPINK team: Ariel, Ann, Audrey, Clay, Danaka, Emily, Farida, Jodie, Justina, Kelly, Lauren, Leonardo, Marcy, Mark, Michelle, Nancy, Olivia, Paki, Presleigh, Samantha, Teri, Shea, and Suzie
CODEPINK Says Stop the War in Ukraine:
Russian Troops Out, No NATO Expansion
CODEPINK strongly condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where over 350,000 civilians have fled the country in fear of explosive weapons and missile attacks, while remaining residents from eastern to western Ukraine seek refuge in underground subways and bomb shelters.
As an international peace organization, we call for an immediate ceasefire, negotiations without preconditions, withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, an end to NATO expansion and a return to the negotiating table to address the security interests of all stakeholders.
We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people under vicious attack and with the thousands of courageous Russian anti-war activists risking arrest and imprisonment to protest in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
There is no military solution to the conflict over Ukraine, a country caught in the crossfire between the United States and Russia, the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear nations.
While we denounce Putin’s reckless veiled threat to launch nuclear weapons against NATO countries, we also recognize the United States government is culpable in the proliferation and deployment of nuclear weapons, and must reverse course on its decision to pursue nuclear rearmament and instead advance verifiable agreements for global nuclear disarmament.
In condemning Putin’s invasion of a sovereign country, the shelling of a Ukrainian hospital, the tanks closing in on Kyiv, we understand the US has played a major role in exacerbating this conflict, facilitating a 2014 coup to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Ukraine and breaking promises not to expand NATO into Eastern Europe, where offensive missiles in Romania and Poland could reach Russia in minutes.
Though some will argue NATO is a defensive alliance of 30 countries, we view NATO as a threat to world peace with its military encirclement of Russia and support for US military aggression in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where an estimated million died under a rain of bombs and millions more were displaced.
NATO’s aggressive stance on China, another nuclear-armed nation, also threatens world peace and efforts to unite in the face of existential climate catastrophe.
In advance of the NATO summit in June, CODEPINK calls for an international security agreement to protect the interests of all Europeans to remain free from war and occupation. Such an agreement should have been forged after the fall of the Soviet Union and dissolution of the Warsaw Pact; instead the US and NATO sought further militarization in a continuance of the Cold War that spawned multiple hot wars, from Korea to Vietnam.
To prevent further fighting in Ukraine, to stop the loss of life, bloodshed and grave environmental degradation from the bombing of munitions plants, let us return to the 2015 Minsk II agreement that established a blueprint for peace and an end to the civil war rocking eastern Ukraine. Ukraine should be a neutral country; its incorporation into NATO should be off the table as a starting point for diplomacy.
During this perilous time, when further military escalation could trigger a Chernobyl radioactive meltdown or push us to the brink of nuclear annihilation, we urge President Biden and Congress to stop the flow of weapons to Ukraine, offer humanitarian assistance and safe refuge instead, renew lapsed arms control treaties (Anti-Ballistic Missile, Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces, Open Skies) the US abandoned with Russia, and reject the imposition of massive sanctions that will harm the Russian people who, like us, want peace and security.
Blanket sanctions on the entire Russian economy could spread economic and environmental hardship to Europe and potentially the global community with energy price hikes that may reduce energy consumption in the short term but prompt more oil drilling and lethal burning of fossil fuels in the long term.
In solidarity with anti-war protesters in Russia and across Europe, we call on the world’s peace-loving people, including conscripted front-line soldiers, to join us in a massive unified response to say: No to War in Ukraine; Yes to Negotiations and Peace.
ACTION: Tell Biden: We Want Peace, Not War!
CODEPINK Petition: Sign Here.
Russia’s decision to attack Ukraine militarily has created a horrific crisis and we must call for Russia to stop its attacks. We need an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table. The United States and NATO have played a major role in exacerbating this conflict and now President Biden must show true leadership not by imposing sanctions that will hurt ordinary Russians, but by engaging vigorous diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
THE LETTER
Dear President Biden,
We write to you as people concerned about the horrific situation right now in Ukraine and the real possibility that this military conflict could easily spiral out of control with either a nuclear accident or a nuclear war. We agree that Russia must withdraw its troops, but we also recognize the major role that the United States and NATO have played in exacerbating this conflict and we call on you to now promote vigorous diplomacy to end the war and achieve a peaceful agreement.
NATO expansion contributed greatly to the roots of the present crisis by violating the agreements that brought the original Cold War to an end and reunified Germany. NATO should have kept its promise not to expand eastward. Instead, it has added 11 member countries that were once either Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact, creating legitimate security concerns for Russia.
Russia has always been opposed to Ukraine entering NATO. In 2008, when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko first applied for NATO membership, President Putin called Ukrainian membership “a direct threat” to Russia. NATO should clearly take the position that Ukraine should not enter NATO but should instead be a neutral country.
We also call on you to re-examine the Minsk II agreement. Unfortunately, all sides failed to fulfill their obligations under the agreement; now is the time to promote this framework in seeking a diplomatic solution.
Diplomacy, not sanctions, is where the solution lies. Sanctions on the entire Russian economy will only hurt ordinary Russians and will spread economic hardship to Europe and potentially, the global community — including here at home with energy prices rising ever higher than they are now.
We cannot risk a military confrontation between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states — the United States and Russia or the risk of a nuclear accident at one of Ukraine’s many nuclear power plant facilities. We cannot tolerate the senseless loss of Ukrainian and Russian lives, the mass suffering of refugees, and the economic hardship on ordinary people that sanctions will impose.
What we need instead is vigorous diplomacy to end the war, get Russia to withdraw its troops, achieve a negotiated solution, and advance the Minsk II diplomatic process. That will be in the best interest of all NATO nations, the Russian people, all the people of Ukraine and the world community.
