La Marx International

In a dramatic twist, at around 8 a.m. on August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian army entered the territory of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation and in a few days took control of more than 70 villages, including where the Gazprom gas pipeline is located Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod which transports around 14,650 million cubic meters of gas to Europe. 

They have inflicted a beating on Putin through a military feat that can completely change the course of Ukraine's War of National Liberation. Events evolve minute by minute, much of the data that we will provide in this article will undoubtedly undergo variations, without changing the content of what is happening. At the close of this edition, the ruble collapsed, as an expression of the crisis caused by the blow that the Battle of Kursk meant for the regime of Vladimir Putin's war criminal.

On August 12, Oleksander Syrskyi and the military commanders of Ukraine reported that the operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region has made it possible to take control of 1000 square kilometers in a few days, equivalent to the entire territory obtained by Putin's forces in 2024. In other words, theBattle of Kursk is a huge triumph for the forces of Ukraine that have a severe impact on the dictatorship of the oligarchy of the Russian Federation headed by Putin. We salute and support this victory of Ukraine!

The Battle of Kursk is a triumph of therevolutionary war for National Liberation that the people of Ukraine have been carrying out for 10 years facing the aggression of Putin's dictatorship. The regime headed by the war criminal attacks the Ukrainian people with methods of extreme cruelty typical of fascism by bombing, beating, destroying cities, whipping the elderly, children, vulnerable families with bombings, destroying hospitals, schools, maternity hospitals, and essential infrastructure. Putin declared the battle of Kursk "a provocation," and announced an "anti-terrorist operation" in a speech typical of an oppressive dictatorship suffering a defeat for its plans.

A democratic and anti-capitalist revolutionary triumph

As we have been explaining in various works that you can read here, Putin's dictatorship represents the oligarchy, the capitalist ruling classes of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other small countries of the Russian Federation that have built fortunes by privatizing and plundering the wealth of the nations of the former Soviet Union in favor of imperialist companies. The wealth of these ruling classes is based on the exploitation of the workers, and the plundering of the peoples of the controlled regions under the people's prison that is the Russian Federation. But the Ukrainian revolution that began in 2014 with the Revolution of Dignity against Putin's puppet government Yanukovych, kicked off the struggle for the liberation of nations to free themselves from the yoke of the Russian Federation.

The capitalist oligarchy headed by Putin cannot allow any sovereignty, nor national independence if it wants to preserve its class privileges. The policy of Zelensky and the imperialist countries of NATO such as the governments of the United States, France, or Germany that claim to support Ukraine goes against the revolution in Ukraine and serves as oxygen to Putin's dictatorship as we have been explaining in various works that you can read here, and we explain in this article later. From Marx International we support Ukraine without giving a millimeter of support to the capitalist government of Zelensky. We stand with the workers and people of Ukraine! Putin must be defeated militarily, and Ukraine must be his Viet Nam!

Despite the immense military superiority of Putin's oligarchy, the invader faces an extraordinary and heroic resistance that is receiving the sympathy and support of the masses of the world, as a result of the fact thatwhen the Ukrainian people fight against Putin's invasion they do so in defense of their living conditions. work, family, for their rights to independence and national self-determination.

That is why, despite the fact that Ukraine has a capitalist government like Zelensky's, because of its character as an oppressed nation when the Ukrainian people carry out their struggle against the capitalist oligarchs of Russia, it goes against all world capitalism. For this reason, the Ukrainian revolution combines democratic demands for national independence with the anti-capitalist tasks of confronting Putin's oligarchy.

A revolutionary triumph that strikes the dictatorship

Theoffensive of the Ukrainian forces in the Battle of Kursk took the invading oligarchy by surprise, whose troops were totally disorganized and confused. Ukraine troopsentered Kursk Oblast, advanced towards Russkoye Porechnoye, captured the towns of Kromsky Biki, Moliutino, Novoivanovka and Martinovka, advanced along road 38K-024 near Anastasyevka. Then operating north of Zaoleshenka they seized Goncharovka, advanced Bogdanovka towards Malaya Loknya to the outskirts of Cherkasskoye Porechnoye near Kruglenkoye, towards Bolshoye Soldatskoye, while east of Sudzha, near Mirny, and took Korenevo. They are now extending the incursions of Ukraine's troops into Belgorod and Bryansk Oblasts, capturing around 800 to 1000 Putin's soldiers.

The Battle of Kursk is a revolutionary action that goes against NATO's proposals, which had explicitly prohibited incursions and bombardments on the territory of the Russian Federation. Many military sources and analysts are arguing that the Ukrainian attack on Kursk follows "NATO standards", which is totally false, asUkrainian forces are advancing without aviation support, which shows that they do not follow any "NATO standards".

On the contrary, due to the absence of necessary resources that NATO has refused to provide to Ukraine, the Battle of Kursk is the product of the inventiveness and own initiatives that they are successfully deploying through new and innovative tactics and technological capabilities such as the combination of tank attack combined with electronic warfare that hinders troop communications. and left the Russian political-military command in suspended animation from the beginning of the advance. Those attacks were combined with drone offensives, and asan additional effect the Battle of Kursk helped significantly reduce attacks on the city of Kharkiv. If Putin's troops used to carry out 30 to 60 attacks on Kharkiv, now the intensity does not exceed 10 attacks. If you want to read more about the definition of Revolutionary War click here.

An additional effect of the Battle of Kursk is that the people of Russia have been shocked to see sections of the population of the Russian Federation displaced, losing their homes, or fleeing their neighborhoods. Putin lied to them about the invasion of Ukraine saying that it was "a special operation", and the population never had access to reality because the dictatorship systematically lied. With the Battle of Kursk, the people of Russia are beginning to understand that their government lied to them and important sectors of the people took to YouTube and social networks to learn more about the war in Ukraine. Faced with this situation, Putin had no better idea than to close YouTube, and cancel several social networks to prevent the people from collecting information.

On the other hand, images have been seen on all social networks of sectors of the Russian people in Kursk claiming Putin had abandoned them. The inhabitants of the occupied villages have stated that the conduct of the Ukrainian soldiers is exemplary, there is no mockery, no shooting at the population unlike what happened in Bucha when Putin's occupying troops carried out genocide against the civilian population. Many Kursk residents have said they are more afraid of possible indiscriminate shelling by Putin's troops than they are of the Ukrainian troops who now control the cities. In that sense, there is a completely different behavior of the populations where the Ukrainian army enters, unlike the behavior of the towns where Putin's army enters.

Every time Russia's troops entered a Ukrainian village the population rose up and protested angrily, however, we do not see such protests in the towns of Kursk or Belgorod when Ukrainian troops enter, and this is a fundamental element that explains almost everything that happens in the Revolutionary War in Ukraine. While both Putin's army and Ukraine's are armies that have a capitalist, bourgeois leadership, they are not the same: Putin's is an oppressive army, representative of the oligarchy of Putin's capitalist war criminals, while Ukraine's is a National Liberation army, which wherever it enters liberates the people and communities crushed and oppressed by Putin's dictatorship. This explains the different reactions and behaviors of the population in both cases.

This is why a sector of the civilian population, especially young people, joins Ukraine's troops in the fight against Putin's dictatorship. There had already been incursions from Ukraine in Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk by the Russian-born partisans, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom Legion of Russia, legions made up of Russian soldiers who deserted and joined the fight for Ukraine. These partisan corps were later joined by the Siberian Battalion, made up of fighters from other nations of the Russian Federation who formed guerrilla groups that successfully attacked Putin's troops in the region, as we explained in the article written at the time, which you can read by clicking here.

Now the partisans of the Russian Volunteer Corps, the Freedom Legion of Russia, and the Siberian Battalion are fighting side by side with the Ukrainian army, and these partisan corps have been joined by the Georgian Legion, and the Ukrainian Legion, partisan corps that have moved and taken villages in Belgorod Oblast. In Belarus, the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment was formed, the group of Belarusian volunteers, which was formed to defend Ukraine against the invasion and now asector of young Russians have joined the troops of Ukraine in protest against Putin's dictatorship, as you will see in the video that we publish below

The Battle of Kursk highlights the crisis of Putin's dictatorship

Among the most resounding Ukrainian successes of the Battle of Kursk is the destruction of an entire battalion of a convoy of Putin's oligarchy in the village of Oktyabrskoye with the annihilation of around 15 trucks, a brutal blow that cost the lives of around 500 soldiers recruited from Putin's troops. This triumph for Ukraine is in addition to the blow that Putin's troops also received in the Battle of Vovchansk, and they have minimised the partial triumphs that Putin achieved in the Donbas, although in no case as profound as those we are seeing in Kursk. The nepotism of the dictatorship has only caused enormous problems for the troops of the invading oligarchy, which has not been able to show military superiority on the battlefield, and on the contrary, has suffered enormous military losses.

The triumph of Ukraine's troops in the Battle of Kursk was possible because Putin and Commander-in-Chief Gerasimov concentrated their troops in only 3 areas of the Donbas, attacking points such as Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar, Pokrovsk and New York where they achieved important advances, but at the cost of spectacular losses. In every war of national liberation, where the oppressed people decide to throw off the oppressive yoke they pay the cost of struggle by contributing 4 or 5 times the amount of losses in relation to their invader, this happened in the wars in Viet Nam, or is happening right now in Palestine. However, in relation to Ukraine, the figures are surprising because the estimated losses for Ukraine and the Russian Federation are almost equivalent, 2,70,000 total with 200,000 deaths, and 70,000 wounded from Ukraine, while for the Russian Federation they are 227,000 total with 77,000 dead and 150,000 wounded.

The remarkable parity in the death toll between Ukraine and the Russian Federation illustrates the military disaster Putin is facing. On the other hand, the people of Russia have massively refused to support the war criminal's policy: between 800,000 and 900,000 Russian citizens fled the country, including up to 700,000 who fled after Putin ordered a partial mobilization in September 2022. 

The military, economic superiority that the oligarchy of the Russian Federation has over Ukraine has not been able to be reflected on the battlefield as a result of the fact that Putin is facing a Revolutionary War, a war of national liberation of a people that is setting an example of struggle, whose resistance is inspiring for peoples like the Palestinians or others who suffer the same national oppression. and it is based on the hatred of oppressed nations against Putin's war criminal.

And where is "Russian Imperialism"?

The defeat of the Battle of Kursk lays bare the charlatanism of those who define Russia as "imperialism". The military, political, economic disaster that Putin is suffering shows the reality that the Russian Federation is not an imperialist country, but a sub-metropolis of imperialist capital completely in crisis. The 99% of the world left that adheres to the "Decoupling Theory" by stating that the Russian Federation in an "imperialism" is receiving a slap in the face from reality, and the action of the masses of the Ukrainian army once again makes a mockery of all its charlatanism. If you want to read more about the submetropolis crisis and the "Decoupling Theory" click here.

El odio de las naciones oprimidas se expresó claramente con el triunfo de Ucrania en la Batalla de Kursk que ha provocado festejos en casi todas las repúblicas de la Federación Rusa. El cuerpo de Chechenia apostado para repeler la invasión de Ucrania el regimiento 1434 "Akhmat-Russia" que obedece a la dictadura de Ramzán Ajmátovich Kadírov, se negó a combatir. Cuando las tropas de Ucrania entraron a Kursk en lugar de salir a luchar en defensa de Putin, los "kadyrovitas" se escondieron en la zona del asentamiento de Sosnovy Bor un comportamiento de los cuerpos de mercenarios que como el desaparecido Grupo Wagner muestra de la crisis del régimen y el ejército de Putin. El odio de los pueblos en el Cáucaso, y en las diferentes regiones de la Federación Rusa a la oligarquía de Putin genera el surgimiento de grupos fundamentalistas que avanzan en las repúblicas de origen musulmán.

El atentado del teatro Crocus City Hall ocurrido el 22 de marzo del 2024 en las afueras de Moscú le ahogó a la dictadura de Putin el festejo su triunfo de la payasada que presentó como elecciones que lo consagraban como presidente de la Federación Rusa por un 5to mandato. Éste atentado reivindicado por el Estado Islámico (EI) donde hubo 133 muertos y más de 200 heridos fue una bofetada en el rostro de Putin que dejó expuestas groseras fallas de seguridad del régimen y la endeblez de la dictadura. Hasta la Batalla de Kursk, Putin y los oligarcas se jactaban de que estaban ganando la guerra, lo cual era falso porque Putin había recibido profundas derrotas durante el 2022 en las grandes batallas de Kiev, de Kharkiv y de Kherson que significaron un golpe estratégico al intento de Putin de tomar el poder en Ucrania y colocar un gobierno adicto a la oligarqu´ía.

When the invading troops arrived at the gates of Kiev, Ukraine barely had an army, and it was the action of the armed people, the Ukrainian partisans, who rejected the invasion, which forced Putin to change his strategy to limit himself to holding the occupied territories in the Donbass. If you want to read more about the Battle of Kiev click here. 

The crisis in Putin's dictatorship can be seen in the brutal battle and purge of Russian elites among Kremlin officials. This led to the resignation of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu following the arrest of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov following the crisis generated by the Wagner Group uprising.

But in addition, Putin's current policy of sustaining a presence in Ukraine, and gaining just a few kilometers has enormous and colossal economic and human costs in terms of the number of soldiers, which was evident in February 2024 when, in the midst of the fall of Avdiivka, the Russia Armed Forces suffered the worst month of human casualties. The high losses suffered by Putin, the military failure, the appearance of increasingly obsolete equipment on the battlefield, the succession of defeats against an infinitely inferior enemy, the growing shortage of heavy equipment such as tanks, other armored combat vehicles and artillery, the recruitment of citizen conscripts without military experience who are brought to the front in waves like cannon fodder, expresses the dead-end crisis of the oligarchy that tries to act as a gendarme and defender of capitalism in the region, but precisely because it is not an imperialist state, it succumbs and is being demolished by the Ukrainian revolution. just as the state of Israel is being demolished by the Palestinian revolution.

Zelensky and NATO's policy against the Ukrainian revolution

The repudiation of the peoples of their European countries in the United States and around the world in the face of the massacre perpetrated by Putin, a few kilometers from the great European capitals, forced the imperialist governments of NATO to declare their support for Ukraine. But the hypocritical policy of NATO governments was to provide limited weapons to the Ukrainian army, without providing strategic weaponry, which meant leaving the Ukrainian people at the mercy of Putin's infinitely superior army. This has meant the systematic killing of thousands of Ukrainian citizens by Putin's criminal bombing of vulnerable civilians, women, children, defenseless families. Like Netanyahu, Putin is very brave when it comes to attacking families, but completely ineffective when it comes to defeating Ukraine's troops and Partisans.

After the triumphs of Kiev, Kharkov and Kharkiv, Putin launched in response the Wagner Group's "winter offensive" in the first months of 2023 that ended with a Wagner triumph that took Bahkmut but at the cost of losing the entire Wagner Group, some 40,000 mercenaries that was totally pulverized by the Ukrainian resistance. That sparked Prigozhin's uprising and the Wagner Group against Putin. In fact, Wagner's triumph in taking Bakhmut was more symbolic than real, and Ukraine had its hands on in the second part of 2023 the possibility of definitively defeating Putin's invasion.

However, once again Selensky and NATO played a perfidious role that led the Ukraine offensive to defeat, as described by Ukrainian analyst Anton Kurushin: "... The Ukrainian command intended to continue the advance but our allies convinced us to stop as they said that our forces were not enough, autumn was coming and that it was better to wait until spring to resume the offensive. They promised us by that time to provide the ammunition and armored vehicles that we had been asking for a long time. We (referring to the Selenzky government) agreed to the idea... Unfortunately that gave the Russians time to prepare all the defensive lines and not only that, our allies realized that ... they did not have them prepared to fulfill what was promised. In this way, once the summer ended with a lack of ammunition, Ukraine was forced to slow down the advance and go on the defensive..." (Anton Kurushin- Ukrainians in Argentina Facebook account. 1/1/24)

FPV drones make it possible to partially make up for the shortage of strategic weaponry, and have allowed Ukraine's troops to carry out real military feats such as completely defeating Putin's navy in the Black Sea, which caused a serious crisis in Moscow and forced Putin to fire Admiral Viktor Sokolov. The defeat of Putin's navy in the Black Sea is an extraordinary event considering that Ukraine has virtually no ships, but it was able to achieve naval supremacy, restore trade routes, and force Putin's fleet to take refuge in Novorosiysk.

It is NATO and Selensky's policy that is the worst enemy of Ukraine's chances of victory, which prolongs the agony of the people, since the shortage of weapons led to Avdiivka's defeat, and all of Putin's advances in the Donbass throughout the current year 2024, which occurred due to the lack of weapons. When the weapons finally arrived in July-August, some cases were absurd such as the fact that F-16 planes arrived to be able to defend themselves by air, but only 2 Ukrainian pilots were authorized to fly them.

The reason why NATO countries have this sinister policy of "proclaiming their support" for Ukraine, and then denying it strategic weaponry, is that none of the imperialist governments are in favor of a defeat that would destabilize Putin's regime of capitalist oligarchy. The imperialist governments of NATO did nothing during the years 2014 and 2022 while Putin invaded the Donbass, attacked Ukraine, and caused millions of displaced people. On the contrary, they were rather complicit in Putin's aggression against Ukraine, calling for useless agreements such as the Misnk Protocols, which Putin never respected.

The imperialist governments of Macron and Scholz have intensely pressured the government of Ukraine to accept a "peace agreement" by stating that they should end the war, during 2022 and 2023 Macron said that an agreement must be reached through diplomatic channels and "Russia must not be humiliated". the same line that the Vatican proposed, and the late imperialist leader Henry Kissinger who used his last months of life to warn about the danger that the fall of Putin's regime would pose to world imperialism. Kissinger, Macron, Scholtz, the Vatican have been pushing all this time for a diplomatic settlement that means Ukraine is giving up the Donbas, in exchange for which Russia is ceasing its attacks on Ukraine. An "agreement" to give Putin a minimal victory that would allow him an elegant exit from the military swamp in which his regime is immersed.

The antics of the Peace Summit for Ukraine in Bürgenstock, Switzerland between June 15 and 16, 2024 went down in history as a new failure of the imperialist countries that clashes with the will of the Ukrainian people, a people that after so many deaths, destruction and suffering will in no way accept to hand over territories, and to give up at the negotiating table what has been achieved with so much struggle and effort. It is also impossible for Zelensky to accept that agreement, knowing that the people will reject them in the midst of growing discontent with his government, and those of NATO for the lack of weapons, the curtailment of conquests, and freedoms.

Zelensky's policy of participating in these "peace summits" and sowing hope in the criminal NATO governments is a pro-imperialist and disastrous policy that favors counterrevolution and strengthens Putin. Zelensky's capitalist government introduced martial law in the country whereby workers and trade unions cannot, by law, organize protest marches, while pushing for the approval in the Ukrainian parliament of bills attacking the labor rights of Ukrainian workers such as "zero-hours" contracts. and Law 5371, which imposes the effective abolition of important labor rights. Zelensky's entire offensive against the Ukrainian people weakens the people and strengthens Putin's oligarchy, as well as the governments of the imperialist countries. In other words, while the Ukrainian people in the streets, and on the battlefield defend Ukraine's independence, their government is dedicated to attacking their most basic rights, a policy that goes against the Ukrainian revolution, but translates into growing discontent with Zelensky and his government.

The global left supports the dictatorship of Putin's war criminal

Groups on the global left refuse to support the revolution in Ukraine on the grounds that "Ukraine receives weapons from NATO." It is a counter-revolutionary policy of objective support for the dictatorship of Putin's war criminal. The people of Ukraine have the right to receive weapons from anyone, even from the devil himself, to defeat the fascist invasion of the criminal war. But this criminal policy of the 99% of the world left is the continuation in Ukraine of the policy of class conciliation or "popular frontism" that is being carried out by the groups of the world left. The Stalinists echo Putin's campaign that Ukraine is a "Nazi" state that must be "denazified." But the one who has Nazi squads in his army is Putin, as denounced by the media outlet The Hill that you can read by clicking here.

Support for Putin is part of the policy that both Stalinists and social democrats carry out around the world of collaborating publicly and shamelessly with capitalist governments and coalitions, placing ministers, advisers and deputies in these governments, or calling for their vote. To them are added thegroups that come from Trotskyism that are adopting the same course at full speed by integrating capitalist coalitions, or calling for a vote for them. With this 'policy of class collaboration', the leaders of the groups of the 99% of the world left are publicly betraying the peoples of the world.

This policy is a betrayal because it breaks with the Marxist principle of class independence, it provokes a serious process of retreat and disintegration of all the organizations of the left in the world, which results in noorganizations of the left that grow or strengthen today. On the contrary, the panorama is one of the non-existence of a world pole that organizes and attracts the activists of the world, a product of the serious process of dispersion and dissolution of all the organizations of the left in the world, without exception. If you want to read more about the global crisis of the left click here.

The break with the Marxist principle of class independence occurs not only among the left-wing forces that support Putin, but also unfortunately among the minority left-wing forces that support Ukraine. Groups such as the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine, such as Sotsialny Rukh (Social Movement) in Ukraine, Razem (Together) in Poland or the Socialist Solidarity Campaign with Ukraine in the United States have ended up supporting the imperialist governments of NATO, promoting Ukraine's entry into the European Union, or supporting the candidacy of Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party in the next presidential elections in the United States. We know that there are honest comrades in these groups, but we cannot remain silent about the treacherous politics developed by those groups that follow the path of breaking with the principle of class independence of the 99% of the global left.

When it comes to confronting a dictatorship of a war criminal, you cannot support imperialist governments that are also war criminals. In no way should illusions be sown in governments that are carrying out genocide in Palestine, but also as we have explained in this article, that they play a perfidious role with respect to the Ukrainian revolution and the Ukrainian people. In this way the Ukrainian revolution continues to aggravate the crisis of the world left, and exposes the opportunism of groups that are not consistently revolutionary.

Let's support the Ukrainian people! Follow Kursk's triumphs until Putin's defeat!

The crisis of Putin's oligarchy is worsening day by day because the peoples of the Russian Federation are a cauldron that raises temperature day by day. Attacks, uprisings, protests are taking place in all the republics of the Russian Federation the Ingush people have achieved the right to create an independent state from Russia in the midst of the Karabulak shooting with cells of the Islamic State, Armenia has begun a process of breaking with Putin's oligarchy, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, he reiterated that Armenia does not support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a statement that shows a serious crisis considering that Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) headed by Moscow.

On the other hand, the attacks at the end of 2023 on the train line on the Baikal Amur line in the Severomouïsk tunnel, in the northwest of the Republic of Buryatia, are an expression of the discontent movements circulating in the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, in addition to the resistance movements that are spreading with mobilizations in Georgia and discontent in the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. These movements, which reflect discontent with the dictatorship, are the ones that constitute the basis for joining the defeat of the Battle of Kursk and going for the definitive defeat of Putin.

From Marx International we are unconditionally on the side of Ukraine. With all our strength we say it: Long live the struggle of the workers and people of Ukraine! Long live the Battle of Kursk! And so, being enemies of NATO's counterrevolutionary policy, and Selensky, the Ukrainian revolution inscribes a new and glorious page of another extraordinary military feat, which puts on the table the struggle against dictatorships, and revolutions for National Liberation. Our support is part of the struggle to end once and for all the dictatorships that defend capitalism, on the path of victories for Global Socialism.

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