Pavel Dmitriev

Authoritarian aggression: A protester breaks up a manne-
quin on the roof of the burned truck during clashes with
police in central Kiev (Photo: Sergei Grits/AP Photo)

The world community should fully realize that Ukrainian Neo-Nazis have become an instrument of US foreign policy.

The coup in Ukraine has taken place. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament) has voted to set early presidential elections for May 25 and done so in violation of Constitution and established order. The former President escaped from Kiev having betrayed his voters, the party, those who stood on guard of law and order and the people. Kiev and a larger part of Ukraine, including Volyn and Galicia regions, have moved under the control of rebels.

The south-eastern part of Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea, excluding the Dnepropetrovsk region, are still loyal to the Constitution and have actually refused to recognize the new regime. At that, it is unclear how long will the local powers in the country’s south-east be able to keep the situation under control…

The Kharkov (or Kharkiv) local governors’s meeting took place on February 22; the final document vaguely stated loyalty to the Constitution and refused to recognize the rebels’ rule…

The regional councils are only legal power structures in the south-eastern part of Ukraine unconditionally recognized by local population that have authority within the limits of their territories. The fates of the people who counter the coup depend on how decisive and resolute the local powers will be. These are the structures that can organize local population and militia to make it maintain law and order and prevent the attempts to seize local administrative buildings.

Until now, the situation in the south-east has been under local powers’ control. Anti-fascist self-defense formations are actively formed in Donetsk, Kharkov and Lugansk, the population there is adamant in its desire to resist. It’s relatively calm in the autonomous Republic of Crimea. The legal powers are strongly determined to repel the attacks of Bandera movement gangs which spread their activities across the country like cancer metastasis.

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Peter Schwarz

This is Svoboda, the Neo-Nazi group that is doing the fighting
in Ukraine. Svoboda is supported directly by Washington.

The recent events in Ukraine are a warning to the international working class. Under conditions in which workers lack both a perspective and a party to enable them to intervene independently in political events, the situation in Ukraine has developed in an extremely reactionary direction. What had been unthinkable in Europe since the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich in 1945 has come to pass: while the US and Germany ruthlessly and recklessly destabilized the country, fascists became the decisive force on the ground.

The crisis was sparked in November of last year by President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. This was unacceptable for Washington and Berlin. As Theo Sommer put it in Die Zeit, the issue at stake was “Where should the EU's eastern boundary, and the western boundary of the Russian sphere of influence, be situated?”

The US and Germany systematically supported the pro-EU opposition, which organized the demonstrations against Yanukovych. In addition to Julia Tymoshenko's Fatherland and Vitali Klitschko's UDAR—two right-wing parties with close ties to the German CDU—the opposition also included the fascist Svoboda party of Oleh Tyahnybok.

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Stephen Lendman

Events continue fast moving. The Wall Street Journal headlined "White House Backs Political Change in Ukraine," saying:

"The Obama administration Saturday issued a cautiously worded statement about the swift political change in Ukraine, but generally endorsed the parliament's moves to set new presidential elections in May and to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office."

European officials reacted the same way, said the Journal. They backed the decisions of the parliament and rejected Mr. Yanukovych's allegations of a coup." Britain officially recognized Ukraine's coup d'état regime. Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

"Events in the last 24 hours show the will of Ukrainians to move towards a different future, and ensure that the voices of those who have protested courageously over several months are heard." "We will work closely with our EU partners in support of a new government in Ukraine, as and when that is formed." "In the meantime, it is important that Ukraine's political leaders respond to events calmly and with determination to harness the united efforts of all Ukrainians to work together for a successful future."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the "existing (reinstated 2004) constitutional order the new legal framework for all political decisions." Coup plotters restored it with virtually no debate or public input.

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