It is time for mass pressure for peace in Ukraine.
The war is at its most dangerous phase yet. The British government is on the verge of a fresh escalation, offering Ukraine British missiles to fire deep within Russia.
Keir Starmer is in Washington seeking US permission to, in turn, give the Ukrainian government authority to escalate the war.
This will not bring peace in Ukraine any closer. There is no likelihood of a military resolution to the conflict, in either direction. It merely makes a wider war more likely.
President Putin says allowing Ukraine to use NATO weapons to make strikes on Russian territory will mean that NATO countries are fighting Russia. This puts Britain at the forefront of any attack and potentially at the front line of any response.
His rhetoric is not always followed by action, but that is not a discrepancy that will last for ever. It is foolish to believe otherwise, and inexplicable to continue to provoke a nuclear-armed power.
The British government is playing with fire. Throughout the conflict since Russia’s invasion in 2022 – which Stop the War condemned from the first – Britain has worked to obstruct peace and prolong the killing.
The British people are already paying the price for this policy in terms of huge increases in military spending which we can ill afford. The Ukrainian people and soldiers on both sides are paying a higher price, of course.
But the cost to the British people is only going to get steeper if this policy is pursued unchecked. We are on the road towards a wider war.
Stop the War calls for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations without pre-conditions. That is what the world demands, other than the US and its allies in this proxy war.
Keir Starmer says it is “time for change”. That applies to foreign policy as much as anywhere else.
It is time that the anti-war and labour movements piled real pressure on the Labour government to break with continuity Tory policy, cease escalations and press for a peace settlement.
