Stop the War strongly opposes Keir Starmer’s proposal to send British troops to Ukraine.
The Stop the War Coalition opposed the Russian invasion but argued from the start that Biden’s attempt to turn the war in Ukraine into a proxy war against Russia would end in disaster for the Ukrainian people.
This has now been proved tragically correct. Hundreds of thousands have died, the war effort has failed and Trump has now abandoned the Ukrainians. Early negotiations could have averted this catastrophe.
Britain has been the main international supporter of Joe Biden’s war drive. Indeed, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson travelled to Ukraine in April 2022 precisely to scupper peace talks.
Britain has already spent nearly £8 billion on military assistance to Ukraine, money that would have been better spent on crumbling schools, hospitals and on social care. The deployment of British troops, already being opposed in many European capitals, would be a further waste of money and would risk inflaming tensions. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine must be resolved through negotiations involving the Ukrainians themselves.
After the disaster of NATO’s aggressive Ukraine policy, it is shameful to see the British and other European governments scrambling to increase military budgets. Donald Trump’s plans to stop underwriting NATO should be seen as an opportunity to move away from failed military solutions towards a diplomacy based on peaceful co-operation.
