BWW statement on Ukraine

We at Brown War Watch condemn warmongering in any shape or form.

We strongly oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine which is driven by odious nationalistic and imperialistic ambitions, and shows disregard for the lives, livelihoods and aspirations of the Ukrainian people. The horrific human costs of the war are already apparent and will only grow more grim with every day of war; the animosity it engenders will poison the region and the international policy arena for the foreseeable future and accelerate war profiteering, the climate crisis, and the gross misallocation of resources toward human suffering and away from human uplift.

We call on the Russian government to agree to an immediate ceasefire and retreat from the occupied Ukrainian territories, while also committing to serious diplomatic negotiations about the underlying tensions. We decry President Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons and castigate the use of weapons that break the Geneva conventions and cause horrific human suffering. We revere the courage of Russian anti-war protestors and activists and hope a wave of Russian citizens may be inspired by them, and act with them.

Our heart breaks for the millions of war refugees created by this unjust act of aggression, and we denounce in the strongest terms the racist treatment of refugees at the Ukrainian border. We call on all countries to welcome and support refugees from this and all conflicts across the globe regardless of their race or religion. We denounce the embedded racism in the media’s coverage of this conflict, and its perpetual willingness to ignore serious and ongoing conflicts and oppressions across the globe because of this deep-rooted racism.

Wars do not happen in a historical and international relations vacuum. We oppose the long-standing bellicosity of US foreign policy toward Russia, including their support for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014. We oppose the steady and relentless expansion of NATO toward the Russian borders despite the successive generations of statesmen assuring Russia this would not happen. We urge the United States and its partners to show a serious commitment to non-intervention in Ukrainian affairs, so that a peaceful resolution to the crisis may prevent the loss of more lives to violence. The United States must lead a path of de-escalation.

Preventing the wasteful escalation of a new Cold War, with Ukraine as a pawn and proxy war, must be an international priority. Given the urgency of the climate crisis we face and the ongoing global pandemic we have not a moment to lose. Brown War Watch urges everyone to work for peace.