No2Nato: not everyone is sending tanks to Ukraine

By Lara Spurr & Paul Cannon (Workers GB Writers Group)

It seems as though every man and his dog has been asked to send weapons to Ukraine as the US Nato military machine pressures armed forces around the world to empty out their stock cupboards and parcel off their old munitions (both to fuel the fire in Ukraine and win the lucrative contracts to replace the gear). But not everybody is playing ball. Here’s a roundup of just some countries who this last week send the dogs of war packing and retain their independence and dignity.

Austria and Hungary

Austria and Hungary agreed on not sending weapons to Ukraine, Hungarian Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Klaudia Tanner in Budapest on 31 January. Both sides stressing their close cooperation.

According to Tanner, the greatest danger is that the war could spread to Europe, which would not only be a matter of conventional war but also of an interplay with hybrid warfare and an increase in migration in general.

“The effects are not only enormously felt in Austria, but also in Hungary. Eventually, the routes run through our neighbouring country to us,” Tanner stressed, APA reported. Both sides agree that a stable Western Balkan region also plays an important role about migration, she added.

Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned down a German request to send ammunition to Ukraine as part of the international effort to help Kyiv repel the Russian invasion.

“Brazil has no interest in passing on ammunition so that it will be used in the war,” Lula told reporters at a press conference in Brasilia alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Scholz has been trying to rally support for Ukraine during a four-day visit to South America after agreeing earlier this month to send German battle tanks, armored fighting vehicles and a Patriot missile battery to the government in Kyiv.

Colombia

Colombia’s first ever left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, revealed that the United States pressured his country as well to give weapons to Ukraine. But he refused to do so, instead urging peace.

Argentina

Argentina, has rejected requests by the United States and European Union that they send weapons to Ukraine.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Argentina on January 28. There, he asked President Alberto Fernández to send military equipment to Ukraine.

Fernández declined, instead stating firmly at a press conference that “Argentina and other Latin American countries do not plan to provide weapons to Ukraine, or to any other conflict zone”.

In an report by journalist Ben Norton he reports: “The commander of the US military’s Southern Command (Southcom), which operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, revealed on January 19 that Washington has been pressuring countries in the region to arm Ukraine.”

“Southcom wants Latin American nations to “replace [their] Russian equipment with United States equipment – if those countries want to donate it to Ukraine”, said Army General Laura J. Richardson.”

Peoples Korea (DPRK)

Kim Yo-Jong, the Deputy Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has stated that the DPRK will always “stand in the same trench” as the Russian military and people, and that “the people of Russia have stood up to defend the dignity and honour of the state and the sovereignty and security of their country.”

The statement seems to have been a response to the US decision to give 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which Kim Yo-Jong characterises as a “vile step” which will serves only to escalate the US’s proxy war in the region with the sinister intention of achieving hegemony in the area and destroying Moscow. Another factor which may have prompted the statement is Washington’s accusation that the DPRK has been supplying Russian Private Military Company Wagner Group with weapons.

Undeterred by these accusations Kim Yo-Jong added “The US is the arch criminal which poses a serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushes the regional situation to the present grave phase. I do not doubt that any military hardware the US and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people.”

Workers Party GB is for getting Britain out of Nato

The Workers Party of Britain, as point 1 of the 10 Point Plan, strives to bring “an end to imperialist wars and financial domination, starting with withdrawal from Nato.”

Nato and the imperialist powers have no “morality” or interest in “supporting freedom and democracy” anywhere in the world as some would claim – if that were so our western governments wouldn’t also be supporting Saudi Arabia’s decimation of Yemen right now. The interests of imperialism are in destroying the economies and political power of its rivals Russia and China, and thos eindependent nations who will not do their bidding. In so doing imperialism hopes to obtain new markets and resources and redivide the world once more.

Help the campaign to withdraw Britain from NATO by purchasing your ticket to the No2NATO No2War meeting in central London, February 25th.