Appeal: No War against the Donbass and against Russia! Stop demonizing Russia!

URL: https://cutt.ly/NI5nqFN
GERMAN: https://cutt.ly/aI5n5ia

Statement on the war in Ukraine – March 6, 2022:

We are now witnessing heavy military clashes between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow speaks of a „special operation“ in Ukraine. Moscow’s declared main motive is therefore the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, its neutrality and a guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO. Moscow has explicitly and repeatedly stated that it is not fighting the civilian population. The West, on the other hand, speaks of a war of aggression by Russia against the people of Ukraine. Russian reporting is censored in many Western countries, and Russia in turn restricts Western broadcasters. Weapons from NATO countries continue to be delivered to Ukraine.

We are deeply concerned about the dramatic events in Ukraine and advocate a peaceful solution.
Our demand must now be:

Cessation of hostilities!
NATO out of Ukraine!
No more arms deliveries to Ukraine!
No NATO membership of Ukraine!

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Russia withdrew from all Warsaw Pact countries, pledging that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe. This was also the basis of Russia’s agreement to the reunification of Germany, which Russia agreed to on precisely this condition. However, contrary to its promises, the West has continued to expand its influence to the East and more and more countries have been allowed to become NATO members. Major U.S. and NATO maneuvers took place on Russia’s borders and almost all arms control treaties were canceled by the US.

Western networks orchestrated a coup in Kyiv in 2014, in which openly fascist groups took part. The Ukrainian coup government, dominated by right-wing extremists, harassed the Russian-born minority by banning the Russian language, among other things. There were extremely violent attacks. This resulted in Crimea’s secession to Russia, legitimized by a vote in Crimea in which a large majority voted to join the Russian Federation. As self-protection against Russophobia in Kyiv, the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were also proclaimed.

The inhabitants of the people’s republics were declared terrorists by Kyiv and a war was started with massive artillery shelling by the Ukrainian army and right-wing volunteer brigades against the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. To date, this has claimed over 14,000 lives, mostly among the Russian-speaking population of Donbass, especially at the height of the conflict before the Minsk-2 accords. Even after Minsk-2, the government of Ukraine continued to wage war against the population of the Donbass, tolerated by the guarantor powers Germany and France, and heavily armed by NATO.

Moscow has now recognized the independence of the People’s Republics. This was done on the basis of a recommendation from the Russian parliament to President Putin. Not without repeatedly urging the fulfillment of the conditions of the Minsk-2 agreement, which is binding under international law, since the end of 2015 and not without repeatedly asking the government in Kyiv to make it clear that it does not want to join NATO. This was repeatedly rejected by Kyiv and by NATO.

Most recently, the President of Ukraine, Selensky, provoked even further when he even expressed his intention to make Ukraine a nuclear power at the security conference in Munich in February. Massively intensified new attacks against the people’s republics in the Donbass and preparations to conquer these areas further aggravated the situation.

Only after that Moscow started the military operation in Ukraine. After a long period of diplomatic initiatives by Russia to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and with the West, including insisting on the implementation of the Minsk II agreement. This obliged the Ukraine, among other things, to enter into direct negotiations with the political leadership of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The hoped-for relaxation through the Minsk-2 agreement did not materialize from the start in 2015 because the Ukrainian leadership repeatedly broke the agreement, and NATO was not interested in a peaceful solution.

Russia’s offensive is said to have forestalled an imminent offensive by the Ukrainian army planned for March 8, according to new reports from the Russian media.

As a reaction from almost the entire West, we are now experiencing an extreme wave of punitive sanctions against Russia, as have been used so far against Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Yemen and other countries. This corresponds to warfare using economic power and is illegal. There have even been isolated calls for facilitating the recruitment of mercenaries in the fight against Putin, or for the Russian president to be assassinated.

Russia has proved that, together with China, it is the power that is ready to resolutely oppose the aggressive provocations of the West and especially NATO.

We deeply regret the situation in Ukraine, which is not in the interest of any party, and we particularly regret all the casualties and the situation of refugees in this war. The military conflicts must be ended as quickly as possible. Ukraine should serve as a bridge of communication between East and West and not as a front line for geopolitical rivalries.

The EU, NATO and Russia must negotiate together and find a solution that takes into account the security interests of all countries. The security of one country must not come at the expense of the security of another country.

Ukraine must declare itself neutral!
Return to negotiations in the spirit of Minsk-2 Treaty!

For more information please proceed to:
http://www.berlin-gegen-krieg.de/ex/no-war-against-russia/

We will now begin asking all signers of the statement below and ask for support of the above statement.

Appeal: No War against the Donbass and against Russia! Stop demonizing Russia!

Against the background of the Ukraine crisis, the demonization of Russia is intensifying and is now threatening to openly escalate.

Russia is being threatened with ever-tougher sanctions, including the disruption of trade relations concerning gas and oil. Payment transactions are being threatened. Further, actual military conflict has become a possibility.

The West uses the narrative of accusing Russia of preparing for war and planning to invade Ukraine. It argues that Russia threatens Ukraine if it moves its troops on its own territory, something that is constantly promoted in the Western media as a sign of Russia’s aggressiveness. Only a few warning voices can be heard.

In fact, the United States, Canada, Great Britain and the EU are sending more and more military units to 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 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, provides a pathway to a nonviolent 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 there by granting them domestic autonomy.

The USA, Britain and their allies must immediately end their provocations, including the training of Ukraine’s military, as well as halting arms sales and shipments to the country.

We call for an immediate de-escalation of the USA-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 its refusal to provide arms to Ukraine. We appeal to Germany to finally advocate at the Minsk negotiations that the intra-Ukrainian conflict parties should begin serious negotiations with each other.

We call on the USA and 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 coronavirus crisis.

We are also referring to the following appeal from the past year, supported by numerous international groups and personalities.

Appeal 2021 English version:
https://cooptv.wordpress.com/2021/04/18/no-u-s-ukraine-war-on-donbass-and-russia/