The Workers’ Party of Ireland condemns the decision by the Biden administration to greenlight the use of US-supplied long range ATACMS missiles against Russian territory, including Kursk. This move marks a dangerous escalation in the conflict, and is intended to provoke a retaliatory response, drawing the United States and its European clients closer to direct conflict with Russia – a conflict which will benefit only the US and its ruling class.

This action further clarifies the true nature of the conflict, as the United States uses NATO and its proxy regime in Ukraine to wage war against Russia, and expand its imperialist interests in the region. At every stage since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, and the escalation to a full scale war in 2022, the US has sabotaged attempts to reach a peaceful conclusion, including blocking of the Budapest agreement of April 2022, in which Russian and negotiators agreed a complete withdrawal to the 2014 borders.

We categorically reject the characterization of the Ukraine war as an inter-imperialist conflict. While Russia is far from a passive victim in this conflict, Russia’s actions have been confined to the protection of national and regional interests on its own borders. By contrast, it is the United States and its allies who embody imperialist ambitions – seeking further economic domination over eastern Europe, waging war to further the interests of US monopoly capital, and using the opportunities posed by the destruction of Ukraine to facilitate the stripmining of Ukraine’s resources and institutions by US corporations. Their decades-long record of military interventions, regime changes, and wars of aggression from Iraq to Libya to Yugoslavia demonstrates their commitment to maintaining global domination at the expense of the sovereignty and self-determination of other nations.