Russia launches offensive on Kharkov as NATO threatens escalation in Ukraine
Alex Lantier, WSWS, May 13 2024
Since the end of last week, Russian army units have attacked southwards into Ukraine, seizing areas north of Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city. It is now evident that this is a significant offensive, threatening to unravel the Ukrainian army’s entire front line and spell disaster for the NATO puppet regime in Kiev. The escalation in Ukraine also intensifies the danger of a reckless military escalation by the NATO powers against Russia. Indeed, what is emerging in Ukraine is precisely the situation in which major NATO powers have said they might attack Russia. Earlier this month, President Macron told The Economist that if the Ukrainian front lines collapsed, he might send French troops to Ukraine. Last week, there were unconfirmed reports that French troops had already deployed to Ukraine. This weekend, as the desperate situation of the Ukrainian army and its NATO backers became evident, Macron went on X/Twitter to call on the NATO powers to be “ready to act.”
The Russian offensive north of Kharkov involves around 50k soldiers of the North Group of Forces. The Russian Ministry of Defense’s Telegram channel says these troops took nine villages north of Kharkov, destroyed Ukrainian tanks, artillery and air defense systems, and killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops. On Sunday, they reached Vovchansk and other towns linked to a line of Ukrainian fortifications north of Kharkov. Ukrainian officials acknowledged suffering important setbacks. General Alexander Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, admitted to “partial successes” of the Russian troops, writing on Sunday on Telegram:
This week, the situation in the Kharkiv region has significantly worsened. Ukrainian defence forces are doing everything they can to hold defensive lines and positions.
The Ukrainian army is currently diverting forces from elsewhere along the front to reinforce units defending the northern approaches of Kharkov. As of this writing, the precise aims of the Russian offensive on Kharkov remains unclear. In March, President Putin called to secure a “buffer zone” north of Kharkov, after Ukrainian forces launched attacks from this area on the nearby Russian city of Belgorod. Yesterday, there were at least four dead and dozens of people wounded when Ukrainian missiles hit Belgorod. It is evident, however, that the Kharkov offensive is part of a broader Russian offensive all along the front. Some press outlets speculate that, if reinforced with more troops, the Sever Group could take both Kharkov and the nearby city of Sumy. Others suggest that this is a diversionary attack, aiming to draw off Ukrainian troops from other places on the front, which will then be stretched so thin that the Russian army will break through there. Indeed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday:
Ukrainian defence forces are doing everything they can to hold defensive lines and positions. The idea behind the attacks in the Kharkiv region is to stretch our forces and undermine the moral and motivational basis of the Ukrainians’ ability to defend themselves.
Drawing Ukrainian soldiers away to fight in Kharkov is already undermining the Kiev regime’s operations. Last night, Military Summary, a YouTube channel that follows the war based on combat reports and video and satellite imagery, reported that planned Ukrainian attacks from Kherson, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, had been called off after troops were diverted from Kherson to Kharkov. It also reported that Russian troops entered the strategic towns of Chasiv Yar and Krasnohorivka, after their defenses were weakened to reinforce Kharkov. If Russian forces take these two cities, which control high ground and critical transport links, they might take the entire Donbas region, which since the 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev has been split between areas controlled by Kiev and areas controlled by forces allied to Moscow.
Whatever the precise unfolding of the fighting, the Kiev regime faces a military catastrophe flowing from its reactionary, pro-imperialist politics. It was installed by a NATO coup and is led by figures hailing the memory of Ukrainian Nazi-collaborationist Stepan Bandera. Headed by Zelensky, who has suspended elections and rules as a CIA-backed dictator, it turned over the Ukrainian people to the NATO powers to be used as cannon fodder to fight Russia, scrapping a peace treaty it negotiated with Russia at the outset of the war in 2022. Two years later, over a half-million Ukrainians have died, and millions of Ukrainians have fled the country to avoid brutal press gangs that draft civilians into the army.
Now, as Ukrainian troops buckle under the Russian offensive, reports are beginning to emerge in the NATO countries that refer to the horrific price in lives paid by the Ukrainian people. Discussing the Kharkov offensive, CNN admitted that the Ukrainian army has been bled white:
The cross-border attack is yet another example of what’s going wrong for the Ukrainians this year. Their forces are thinly stretched, with much less artillery than the Russians, grossly inadequate air defenses and above all a lack of soldiers.
One Ukrainian officer told CNN:
Manpower shortages compel Ukraine to avoid deploying large units along the border continuously. We expect further Russian advances, with Russian forces deploying more units to penetrate additional border areas or to reinforce initial successes.
The greatest danger emerging is that, faced with the failure of their strategy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian, the NATO imperialist powers will escalate the war, sending their own troops. This faces overwhelming opposition in the working class. Indeed, polls have shown that 68% of French people, 80% of Germans and 90% of Poles oppose sending troops to Ukraine. Nonetheless, trampling popular opposition underfoot, the NATO powers are threatening to intervene, particularly if the Kiev regime keeps going from defeat to defeat, accepting the risk of escalation to nuclear war. A week ago, on CBS, US House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries hailed the Ukraine war as a “strategic success,” but then warned that US troops might have to fight Russia to keep Washington’s Ukrainian puppet regime from collapsing. He said:
We can’t let Ukraine fall because if it does, then there’s a significant likelihood that America will have to get into the conflict, not simply with our money, but with our servicewomen and our servicemen.
On Saturday, Germany’s FAZ reviewed discussions in German government circles of Macron’s call to send troops to Ukraine. It concluded that in Berlin, “experts” believe “any future cease-fire line would have to be guaranteed by Western ‘boots on the ground’” in Ukraine. On May 8, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė told the Financial Times that she wants to send troops to Ukraine. Blithely shrugging off questions about nuclear war, Šimonytė said:
If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything. Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked.
Russia’s post-Soviet capitalist regime is, for its part, threatening that it may retaliate against NATO involvement by attacking NATO countries, including with nuclear weapons. In his May 9 inaugural address, Putin said:
Russia will do everything not to allow a global conflict, but at the same time, we will not let anyone threaten us. Our strategic forces are always at combat readiness.
Russian General Yuri Netkachev told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
If the presence of NATO specialists and soldiers at military facilities and in formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operating against the Russian Armed Forces is proven, they will become participants in the conflict. And in this case, the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons against them will be completely justified.
These remarks underline that the only way to prevent a catastrophic escalation of the conflict is to alert, unify and mobilize the international working class in struggle against the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, and against all the capitalist governments that are waging it.
Nordic military operations highlight NATO’s preparations to attack Russia from the north
Jordan Shilton, WSWS, May 13 2024
The guided missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius arrives in Narvik, Mar 15 2024.
Recent months have witnessed levels of military activity in the Arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland that are unprecedented since WW2. One major NATO exercise has followed another, with tens of thousands of troops participating, while the US has expanded its bilateral defence agreements with all three countries to create what resembles a massive American staging ground for an invasion of Russia from the north. During the first two weeks of March, some 20k NATO troops from 13 countries participated in Nordic Response 2024. The exercise was the successor to the long-running biennial Norwegian Cold Response manoeuvre, which was expanded to include Sweden and Finland following their accession to the aggressive US-led military alliance. The deployment included large contingents of ground, air, and naval forces in a simulated battle triggered by the invasion of a “fictitious adversary.” The exercise included the first trial of a Joint Nordic Air Operations Command, with the air forces of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden controlled from one base in Bodo, northern Norway.
Nordic Response was part of the larger Steadfast Defender mobilisation, a series of continuous military manoeuvres involving 90k NATO personnel that began in January and extends into June. The area of operations stretches from the Arctic through the Nordic and Baltic regions to Central Europe. In its first stage, the exercise involved the transportation of US military personnel across the Atlantic to support European NATO members in a war scenario. The next stage, which is now well advanced, involves the transit of US personnel from their landing sites along the Nordic coast eastwards towards the Russian border.
Steadfast Defender 24, Korzeniewo, Poland, Mar 4 2024.
Operation Immediate Response started in late April, when a cargo ship carrying large quantities of US military supplies docked at the northern Norwegian port of Narvik. The exercise involved transporting the equipment, which belongs to the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army, by rail and road through Sweden to Finland, where it will be used in the Northern Forest manoeuvre. Around 1,600 US soldiers and 200 military vehicles arrived in Finland this past week after completing the 550-km journey. Another location for the exercise further south was Kalundborg in Denmark, where military equipment was also brought ashore. Colonel May Brith Valen-Odlo from the Norwegian armed force commented:
This operation is important within the NATO framework. It shows the Americans’ ability and will to deploy rapidly and our ability to receive and be a transit country. In line with NATO’s new plans, we could quickly become a transit country to receive forces, prepare them, and send them through Sweden and Finland.
The last time Norway and Sweden served as “transit countries” was for Nazi Germany during WW2. After the Nazis invaded the country and set up a puppet regime under Vidkun Quisling in April 1940, the Wehrmacht’s Armee Norwegen was established. As part of the subsequent launching of the war of extermination against the Soviet Union in Jun 1941, the 163rd Infantry Division was transferred from Norway via neutral Sweden to serve alongside the Finnish army as it invaded the Soviet Union. The Nazi advance along this front took troops within 30 km of Leningrad, which Finnish soldiers helped blockade with their Nazi allies. Armee Norwegen commanders led operations against Soviet troops in Lapland.
In the months leading up to the latest major NATO manoeuvres, the US concluded a series of bilateral agreements with the Nordic countries to secure unrestricted access to dozens of military facilities within striking distance of the Russian border. Three defence cooperation agreements (DCA) concluded with Finland, Sweden, and Denmark in Dec 2023, and an updated DCA finalised with Norway in Feb 2024, cover a total of 47 “Agreed areas” of operation across the four countries. In an “agreed area,” which is usually associated with a military base or training ground, US soldiers can operate freely and store materiel to be used in future deployments. A total of 15 of these “agreed areas” are in the Arctic regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden, close to the Russian border with Norway and Finland. American military personnel also have the power to exercise authority over civilians within or in the “immediate vicinity” of the “agreed areas.” In “extreme cases,” this power can be extended beyond the “immediate vicinity” of an “agreed area.” The agreements make clear that the US has the first right to prosecute its soldiers under American laws for any crimes committed whether on or off duty.
M3 amphibious rig, Exercise Dragon 24, Poland, Mar 3 2024.
The initiative for these agreements, which recall the dictates of a neocolonial power over its occupied territories, was taken by the US, which insisted that the first DCA agreed with Norway in 2021 was an “indispensable precondition” for further US investments in military infrastructure in the country. American imperialism views access to the Arctic as essential under conditions in which climate change is opening up the region to resource exploitation and intercontinental trade. Washington is determined to ensure its dominant position in the high north at the expense of Russia, China, and other potential rivals. This includes its erstwhile European allies, who, led by German imperialism, are making their own moves to boost their presence in the region.
Military cooperation is also being expanded dramatically between the Nordic nations themselves. The Nordic Defence Command (NORDEFCO) was established in 2009 by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The collaboration initially served principally as a mechanism to enable Finnish and Swedish forces to participate in NATO exercises, and gain experience in training and using NATO equipment to the alliance’s standards. Now, however, with all the nations in NATO, the command structure is being consolidated to integrate Nordic operational capabilities. A new Vision 2030 strategy was recently unveiled by NORDEFCO that includes “vigorous joint action” in eight defence and security areas. Writing in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the defence ministers from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated:
Altogether, we have unique knowledge of the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the Baltic Sea, and an almost 1.5k km long land border with Russia. In total, we have over 250 fighter planes and 0.35m soldiers. Together, we will be able to provide the conditions required for the reception, deployment, and further movement of allied troops to and through our countries.
One main area of focus is strengthening the “deterrence and defence” of the Nordic and Euro-Atlantic regions by improving operational cooperation. A recent NORDEFCO meeting was held in the Faroe Islands to discuss NATO military options stretching from Greenland in the west, where the US has maintained a military presence since WW2, through Iceland, which relies on its NATO allies for air protection as it has no armed forces of its own, to the Nordic countries in the Arctic and Baltic regions. The alliance also aims to strengthen “host nation support and logistical support” for troops from other NATO allies operating in the region, cooperation in the purchasing of defence materiel, and the “Nordic defence industrial base” to improve the reliability of supply lines. The strategy document underscores that the ambition is to subordinate all areas of society to the goal of waging war. It defined its goal as:
Total defence to secure adequate support from all sectors of society to the defense sector in all threat scenarios and situations.
Of all the Nordic countries, Finland has gone farthest in implementing a “total defence” strategy. With a population of just under 5.5m, it can mobilise over 0.25m soldiers rapidly and has some 0.9m members in the military reserve. Finland recently spent close to $10b to purchase 64 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, the equivalent of a country the size of Germany purchasing around 1k of these aircraft. During a visit to Berlin last week, Finnish President Alexander Stubb received a warm response to his appeal for other countries to “be like Finland.” According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose government has massively increased military spending and revived Germany’s global imperialist ambitions, Germany can learn a lot from the Finnish approach. Scholz said in connection with Stubb’s visit:
We would like to learn from the Finnish experiences with Russia as a neighbour. We are also interested in the Finnish approach to civil defence.
South Korea expresses its desire to join the anti-China AUKUS alliance
Ben McGrath, WSWS, May 13 2024
Penny Wong, ChoTae-yul, Richard Marles, Shin Won-sik, Melbourne, May 1 2024
During recent talks between the foreign and defence ministers from South Korea and Australia, Seoul acknowledged publicly for the first time that it was actively seeking to join the AUKUS military alliance, currently comprised of Australia, the UK and the US. The move is part of US-led plans throughout the Indo-Pacific region for war against China. South Korean Foreign Minister Jo Tae-yeol and Defense Minister Sin Won-sik met with their respective counterparts Penny Wong and Richard Marles in Melbourne, Australia on May 1 for the sixth iteration of the “two plus two” talks between the two US allies. A joint statement released afterwards stated:
The RoK welcomed that the AUKUS countries are considering cooperation with additional partners on Pillar ll advanced capability projects.
Sin made clear after the talks that this meant the possibility of Seoul joining the anti-China alliance, saying, “During today’s meeting, we also discussed the possibility of partnering with AUKUS Pillar II.” Not stopping there, the joint statement also noted that the South Korean ministers “expressed the ROK’s interest in the Quad.” The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprised of the US, Australia, Japan and India, is a quasi-military alliance also meant to surround and threaten China. Indicating that cooperation with other countries will expand, Marles stated:
As AUKUS Pillar II develops, there will be opportunities in the future, and we’re seeing that play out in relation to Japan as well.
The announcement comes after the three AUKUS countries announced last month in connection with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Washington that they were planning to bring Japan into Pillar II as well. AUKUS was launched in Sep 2021 and includes two “pillars.” The first involves the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia while the second deals with military technology sharing, cooperation and development. While Pillar I is currently not open to additional members, Pillar II is provocatively being expanded to incorporate other allies, such as South Korea and Japan, but potentially New Zealand and Canada as well.
South Korea is likely to provide its allies assistance in the development of advanced hypersonic weaponry. Seoul is currently working on a hypersonic cruise missile that it will begin testing this year called Hycore. The missile is expected to reach speeds of up to Mach 6.2 and enter service early in the next decade. The US reportedly cancelled the development of its own AGM-183A hypersonic missile in Mar 2023 after repeated test failures. The missile, the US’s first air-launched hypersonic weapon, is designed for use on a B-52 bomber. Despite the cancellation, developer Lockheed Martin is still working on its production. Cooperation on hypersonic weapons is considered vital for the US-led war effort against both China and Russia. Malcolm Davis of the US-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank stated that both China and Russia “are more advanced in their development and deployment of such technologies,” giving them tactical benefits. He added that it was “absolutely vital” for AUKUS members, as well as South Korea and Japan, to develop hypersonic systems in order to combat China. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, expressed concerns over the latest AUKUS developments without directly naming South Korea on May 6. he said:
Despite being called a ‘trilateral security partnership,’ AUKUS is essentially about fuelling military confrontation through military collaboration. “t creates additional nuclear proliferation risks, exacerbates the arms race in the Asia-Pacific and hurts regional peace and stability. China is deeply concerned and firmly opposed to it.
These dangers are being hidden from the working class in South Korea and throughout the region as Seoul expands its participation in US anti-China war preparations. South Korea is already part of a de-facto trilateral military alliance with the US and Japan, formally established during a summit between the countries’ leaders last August at Camp David near Washington. This received praise from Wong and Marles during the recent “two plus two” talks. Notably, the growing danger of a catastrophic war with China was entirely absent from the campaigns of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party and main opposition Democratic Party during last month’s general election, demonstrating that both support the war efforts. Neither party was willing to raise the issue lest it spark the latent anti-war sentiment that exists in the South Korean working class. US imperialism is not only strengthening alliances bilaterally but drawing its allies into a web of alliances that surround China in preparation for war. The South Korean and Australian ministers emphasized this in their joint statement, stating:
We warmly welcomed the strengthening of our respective alliances with the United States. Our active participation in exercises and activities bilaterally, as well as multilaterally, with countries such as the US and Japan, will contribute to peace and stability in the region. We reaffirmed the importance of preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the region as well as freedom of navigation and overflight in and above the South China Sea and East China Sea.
For all the talk of “peace and stability,” the statement then noted dangerous flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific that the US has deliberately inflamed. The statement simply parrots the propaganda emanating from Washington which is provocatively undermining the “One China” policy that has formed the bedrock of relations with China since 1979. Virtually every country in the world, including the US, acknowledges de facto that Taiwan is part of China by having only formal diplomatic relations with Beijing. Washington is boosting diplomatic and military ties with Taipei with the aim of goading Beijing into a war. The US knows full well that China will not allow a precedent to be set for the carving up of its territory and its return to the semi-colonial status it suffered during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The US and its allies are also expanding military exercises throughout the Indo-Pacific region on Beijing’s doorstep, in which Seoul and Canberra participate. South Korea, for example, took part in the Talisman Sabre war games in Australia for the first time in 2021. Seoul also plans to send observers to Australia’s Exercise Southern Jackaroo this June for the first time. Both exercises are conducted alongside the US military. Australia also takes part in the massive US and South Korean war games Ulchi Freedom Shield and Freedom Shield that take place annually on the Korean Peninsula.
Democrats and Republicans: US enablers of Israeli onslaught on Rafah
Patrick Martin, WSWS, May 13 2024
The week begins as Israel is stepping up its genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza, both in Rafah, the last unoccupied portion of the enclave, and throughout the Gaza Strip. A catastrophe of monumental proportions is unfolding in southern Gaza. Over the weekend, another 300k Palestinians have been forced to flee from Rafah as the IOF begins its final assault in southern Gaza, bombing neighborhoods and moving troops and tanks into place. The IOF is directing them into the Mawasi area, the far southwest corner of the territory, where they will be trapped between Israeli forces, the Egyptian border and the Mediterranean Sea, effectively confined in an open air prison, without shelter, supplies of food and water, or protection from Israeli bombs and missiles. On Sunday, Israeli tanks plowed back into the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, with a pre-war population of more than 100k, claiming that Hamas is rebuilding its political and military network there. Gazan officials said that there were no medical services or humanitarian aid being provided in the entire northern half of Gaza, which includes Gaza City and Jabalia. UN relief officials said acute famine exists throughout that region. Media reports said as many as 200k people were fleeing the fighting in the north.
The imperialist powers of the US-NATO axis, above all the Biden administration, are fully culpable in this latest stage of the Gaza genocide, which has lasted for seven months. Biden is currently engaged in political posturing, in an effort to defuse the mass opposition among students and working people to the Israeli genocide. But his cynical and insincere “criticisms” have not had the slightest effect on the actual conduct of Israeli military operations, nor are they intended to do so. While a number of Democrats issued hand-wringing professions of concern over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza Sunday, the essence of US policy in the region was summed up by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Speaking on NBC Meet the Press, Graham denounced suggestions by his interviewer, Kristen Welker, that Biden had withheld only the largest weapons, such as 2k lb bombs, which would cause thousands of civilian deaths if used in a congested space like Rafah. Why couldn’t Israel accomplish its purpose with precision weapons and kill fewer people, Welker asked. Graham responded:
Well, I think it’s impossible to mitigate civilian deaths in Gaza as long as Hamas uses their own population as human shields. Listen, you know, here’s what I would say about fighting an enemy who wants to kill you and your family. Why did we drop two bombs—nuclear bombs—on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? To end a war that we couldn’t afford to lose, when we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. That was the right decision. Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war they can’t afford to lose and work with them to minimize casualties.
As a matter of historical fact, the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Truman administration was not necessary to “end a war.” Rather, it was intended to demonstrate that American imperialism was willing and able to use nuclear weapons and slaughter tens of thousands of innocent civilians to secure its global domination. Graham, echoing similar statements by Representative Tim Walberg five weeks ago, is advocating a policy of mass murder: Palestinians remaining in Gaza should simply be killed. What the media presents as a significant conflict within the US political establishment involves, at most, tactical considerations. The Biden administration continues to arm and defend Israel as it escalates its genocidal assault on Rafah. The Democrats and Republicans joined hands last month to pass nearly $100 billion in additional funding to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the preparation for war against China. And they are united in their crackdown on protests against the genocide within the US. A particularly cynical role is played by figures like Senator Bernie Sanders, who also appeared on NBC Meet the Press. He told Welker that he favored cutting off US military aid to Israel. Sanders, however, said nothing about Biden and the role of the US as the principal enabler of the genocide in Gaza. The omission is deliberate. Sanders is a leading supporter and surrogate for Biden on the campaign trail, portraying his reelection as essential to preserve American democracy. When Welker asked about his comment earlier in the week that there was a danger that Gaza could become Biden’s Vietnam, Sanders replied:
What I worry about is that this war in Gaza right now is not only strongly opposed by young people, but a whole lot of people in the Democratic base.
It couldn’t be clearer. Sanders has shifted his public posture, mouthing some criticisms of the war, in order to protect Biden’s reelection campaign and divert mass popular opposition to the Gaza genocide into a dead end. In a video posted last week, Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Joseph Kishore stated:
In the 2024 presidential elections, it is meaningless to talk about a ‘lesser evil’ in the conflict between Biden and Trump, the Democrats and Republicans.
This is a political conclusion that must be drawn by workers and young people opposed to the genocide in Gaza. The critical question is the independent intervention of the working class in the fight against the genocide, imperialist war and the capitalist profit system. The WSWS calls for the escalation of the genocide in Gaza to be met with an escalation of mass protests throughout the world. Workers should take up the fight against the genocide, which is being waged in the interests of the same ruling class that exploits them, through strike activity and other forms of protests to stop the shipment of arms and other goods used by Israel to carry out its assault on Rafah.
Wael Al-Dahdouh is comforted during the funeral
The site of a building bombarded by Israeli forces in Rafah, May 9.
A camp for IDPs in Rafah
Niqnaq 