NATALIA VITRENKO

Stop Inciting Ukraine Toward War with Russia!

Jan. 28–Natalia Vitrenko is a Doctor of Economic Sciences and Chairman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU). She served as a People’s Deputy in the Verkhovna Rada (the national parliament of Ukraine) from 1995-2002. In 1999, Vitrenko was a prominent candidate for the Presidency of Ukraine. She has been a long-time collaborator with Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute in many conferences and initiatives, most recently as speaker at the LaRouche Legacy Foundation’s August 14 international seminar, “On the 50th Anniversary of LaRouche’s Stunning Forecast of August 15, 1971: So, Are You Finally Willing To Learn Economics?”

In her capacity as chairman of the PSPU, Vitrenko, on January 19, sent an Open Letter ripping apart the fraud of those pushing for confrontation with Russia on the pretext of allowing the people of Ukraine to “write their own future.” The full text of the open letter follows.

Open Letter to World Leaders

Stop Supplying Weapons and Using Political Blackmail
To Incite Ukraine to War with Russia!

January 19, 2022

[Print version of this article]

Issued by: Natalia Vitrenko, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU)

To: President Joe Biden, USA; PM Boris Johnson, UK; PM Justin Trudeau, Canada; President A. Duda, Poland; Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg

CC: UN Secretary General, A. Guterres; Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić; Secretary General of the OSCE, H.M. Schmid; President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky; President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin

Dear heads of state and government, dear leaders of respected international organizations;

The Central Committee of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, expressing deep concern over the socioeconomic catastrophe in Ukraine, considers it unacceptable and dangerous, for both the citizens of Ukraine and the entire world community, to use political blackmail in inciting Ukraine to war with Russia. Countries of the West, led by the USA and NATO, are inciting our country in that direction.

Since 2014, to our deep regret, fratricidal warfare has been under way in Ukraine, in which more than 15,000 innocent civilians have already been killed. In violation of international law and Article 17 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of our state have been dragged into this conflict. In our view, the reason for this situation in Ukraine is not only the rewriting of history, making heroes out of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA) collaborationists who abetted Hitler, but also the implementation, unacceptable for a civilized nation, of a state policy based on the ideology of Ukrainian “integral” nationalism (fascism). This is what has given rise to ethnic and religious hatred and discrimination against “non-indigenous” ethnic groups, which lawfully enough led to a split within our country. That policy has been enshrined in the laws on “lustration,” “de-communization,” indigenous peoples, and languages.

The split in society and the deceiving of our population have been intensified by the policy forced upon our country of seeking to join the EU and NATO. In 1991 Ukraine’s sovereignty was recognized by the world community on the basis of the norms and principles set forth in the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of Ukraine, which was twice affirmed by our people in nationwide referenda (March 17 and December 1, 1991). The legal force of this Declaration still has precedence. That means that the world community not only recognized, but is obliged to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine as a neutral, non-bloc state, committed to a foreign policy of creating a union state with the former republics of the USSR.

We understand that you, the leaders of countries in the West, do not like that kind of sovereignty for Ukraine and it does not benefit you in geopolitical terms. But that was the choice of our people, as against the false choice of the Ukrainian puppet regime that has been dragging the country towards joining the EU and NATO.

It is quite clear that as long as our country maintained its non-bloc status, we had peace and tranquility. The policy of joining the EU and NATO, however, and the policy of Ukrainian “integral” nationalism (fascism), have led not only to a socioeconomic catastrophe and the loss of state sovereignty, but also to our people’s transformation into cannon fodder in the West’s geopolitical struggle against Russia and China.

The Central Committee of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine categorically opposes that policy, which is forcing the Ukrainian regime to provoke a full-scale armed conflict with the Russian Federation.

We have drawn these conclusions not only from the aggressive rhetoric of your countries’ officials and the NATO leadership, and not only from the bellicose propaganda of the Ukrainian regime and all its mass media, but also from the continuous supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine, construction of (essentially foreign) military bases on our territory, and the dispatch here of one after another unit of special forces, instructors and advisors from your countries.

We understand that capitalism, by its objective nature, is sinking into an ever deeper crisis and that ominous social and economic problems are increasing in your countries.

We understand that in the People’s Republic of China a magnificent event will soon take place, the Winter Olympic Games, which will show to the entire world an unprecedented, never before achieved level of development of a socialist state. That is why your countries have organized a “diplomatic boycott of the Olympics,” and to discredit this great international sports festival, just as in 2008 you needed a military provocation. If it’s not Georgia against Russia, then this time it’s Ukraine against Russia. It’s clear that you want a military conflict, but you want it to be done by somebody other than yourselves. You won’t be the ones with zinc coffins coming home, and it won’t be your cities and villages that lie in ruins. You’ve grown accustomed to getting somebody else to do it for you. And for this purpose, you buy off and intimidate the puppet regimes in your colonies.

We are categorically opposed to this being done in general. And, included, to its being done through Ukraine and at the expense of the people of Ukraine.

We draw your attention to the fact that delivering weapons to Ukraine today, in the current blistering-hot conflict situation, is a violation of the UN Charter, the Minsk accord on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass (an agreement affirmed by the UN Security Council!), and international humanitarian law—in particular, the international Arms Trade Treaty (April 2013). Beyond any question, your countries’ supplying weapons to Ukraine is harming peace and security and provoking an intensification of the armed conflict and a growth in tension. This is expressly forbidden by that Treaty.

We also draw your attention to the International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers, drafted in 2000 by laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize. In particular, Article 4 of that Code, “Compliance with international human rights standards,” and Article 8, “Commitment to promote regional peace, security and stability.” The Code calls for not supplying weapons in instances of a Nazi regime or if it may lead to “a significant number of displaced persons or refugees.”

Peace and accord will be established in Ukraine not by weapons deliveries, but by implementing the Minsk agreements, recognizing that Ukrainian “integral” nationalism is a criminal ideology, and the denazification and democratization of our country. The governments of your countries and of Ukraine are obliged to realize that war and incitement to war are not the main values of world civilization. Those values are peace, life, and the mental and physical health of people.