The war in Ukraine is not about defending “democracy” and “freedom,” as official propaganda claims. As in any war, the imperialist powers are pursuing geostrategic objectives and tangible financial interests. This was underlined by the trip of the German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) to Ukraine earlier this week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ideal, shakes hands with German economy and climate minister Robert Habeck in the village of Yagidne, Chernihiv area, Ukraine, on April three, 2023. [AP Photo/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office]

It was Habeck’s initial trip to Kiev considering that the war started. He stated he wanted to come only if he could bring some thing with him: “An financial delegation that provides Ukraine the hope that there will be a reconstruction immediately after the war.” This entails huge income for the German economy and the division of the spoils of war.

The war propagandists in the media openly say this. “With armaments, with upkeep and reconstruction, cash can be produced. No wonder the Europeans are also displaying their ugly side right here, ”commented Stefan Kornelius, a top political commentator at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, on Habeck’s trip and the rising competitors amongst the imperialist powers.

The G-7 nations are currently “openly discussing who would take manage of the post-war Ukraine.” He continued: “Whoever pays calls the tune.” The German government as a result has no purpose to lament and complain, but need to “coolly acknowledge that this war, in spite of all popular political outrage, also promotes the states’ self-interest.”

In reality, German imperialism, which attempted to annex Ukraine in the course of the Initially and Second Planet Wars, is aggressively pushing ahead. Currently final August, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy set up a functioning group “Recovery Ukraine,” which published the dossier “Rebuild Ukraine” in September. It incorporates “proposals of the German economy for the reconstruction and modernization of the Ukrainian economy.” In October, the German government held a conference on “Reconstruction of Ukraine” in Berlin.

Now the plans are becoming place into action on the ground. Habeck’s delegation consisted of seven top representatives of the German economy – like Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Martin Wansleben, Managing Director of the German Chamber of Market and Commerce (DIHK) and a representative of the federal state’s bank, the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) – and they produced no secret of their interests.

Habeck himself sees the Eastern European nation as a potentially critical power supplier. Germany and Ukraine have been partners in this location considering that 2020, he stressed, immediately after going to a substation of the power organization ‘Ukrenergo.” The Ukrainians’ “strategic plans” are to “make the power technique broader and far more decentralized.” In this respect, “two points match collectively really properly: the have to have for safety and a sustainable power technique.” Ukraine could come to be an power exporter to Europe.

The hunger of German imperialism is not restricted to queries of power. In an interview with ZDF’s Heute Journal, Habeck announced that the German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer will invest €60 million in Ukraine. In addition, the constructing components organization Fixit Group will “expand its capacities in constructing components production in Ukraine, just about doubling it.” This is also urgently necessary for the repair of roads, buildings and bridges.

In order to safe Berlin’s manage more than the reconstruction, Habeck promised the corporations a substantial investment assure. “Should this factory constructing be destroyed, for instance by missile attacks, the German state guarantees or is liable,” the economy minister promised. For war zones, “we ordinarily never do that, but in this case we do.”

In order to raise the huge sums that the reconstruction will price – estimates variety from about €400 billion to more than €1 trillion – a “triad” is necessary: Ukraine need to “create very good investment circumstances,” there need to “be guarantees from the public sector,” and then “private capital need to want to go to Ukraine.”

“Good investment conditions” are a euphemism for the brutal exploitation of the functioning class. Currently final summer time, the Zelensky regime promised possible donors that it would obtain annual GDP development of far more than 7 % by 2032. Given that then, Kiev has continued to attack the rights of Ukrainian workers, who have been currently amongst the poorest and most exploited in all of Europe ahead of the war.

In addition, the exploitation of Ukraine is straight linked to the plans for the subjugation and plunder of Russia. In February, the Baltic states and Poland referred to as on other Western governments to use Russia’s central bank reserves, about $300 billion of which are stored abroad, for Ukrainian reconstruction. Habeck did not comment on this proposal – which would be illegal and an act of robbery – but produced it clear that the German government is looking for the military defeat of nuclear-armed Russia.

“We think that Ukraine will be victorious, that it will be rebuilt, that there is an interest of Europe not only to help in have to have, but that Ukraine will also be a robust financial companion in the future,” Habeck stated. There need to be “no surrender on Putin’s terms,” but the “restoration of an order that implements peace.”

Habeck’s argument is cynical and mendacious. The imperialist powers, which have been at war constantly for just about 3 decades and have bombed whole nations, are not interested in peace, but in the expansion of war. “It would have been ideal to help Ukraine militarily earlier,” stated Habeck, who was 1 of the couple of German politicians who referred to as for “defensive weapons” to be delivered to Kiev ahead of the Russian invasion. “The decisive issue is how swiftly the promised tanks and the promised ammunition will arrive in Ukraine.”

The widening of the war, which is increasingly straight producing the danger of nuclear escalation – on Tuesday the Kremlin confirmed the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus – is accompanied by aggressive propaganda about Russian war crimes. Habeck and Zelensky visited the basement of a college in the village of Jahidne. The Ukrainian president claimed that Russian soldiers crammed 350 residents inside, killing eleven Ukrainians. One more dozen have been shot.

These claims can not be verified. But atrocity propaganda is an critical instrument of warfare. The opposing side is accused of horrific crimes that are either fictitious or massively inflated in order to dehumanize the enemy and seek its total destruction.

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“All you can want for the President of Russia is to commit his remaining days in the basement with a bucket rather of a toilet,” Zelensky stated. Habeck explained that he could recognize Zelensky.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is reactionary, but the primary duty for the war lies with the imperialist powers. Given that the dissolution of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, NATO has been systematically encircling Russia. In early 2014, Washington and Berlin organized a ideal-wing coup in Ukraine to set up an anti-Russian regime in Kiev. Even then they relied on fascist forces, which now play a central part in the war.

The propaganda about Russian war crimes in Ukraine can not hide the reality that NATO is arming a government in Kiev that worships Nazi collaborators such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych and celebrates members of fascist army units and militias as “heroes of Ukraine.” All this is carried out with the complete help of the Federal Government and, above all, the Greens.

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Shortly ahead of Habeck’s check out, Green leader Marieluise Beck posted a selfie on Twitter with a specific “Kateryna P.,” praising her as “an adorable, extremely inventive young lady.” Her husband had fought “with Azov for a life of freedom rather of dull Russian terror. These who are prepared to give their lives for dignity and freedom are frequently the very best. They are fighting for us as well.”

Beck’s hero is the former commander of the fascist Azov regiment Denys Prokopenko, who played a central part in the Battle of Mariupol. Prokopenko tends to make no secret of the reality that he sees the war against Russia as aspect of a far-ideal historical mission.

His grandfather fought against the Soviet Union in Planet War II in Finland, and Prokopenko writes: “It feels like I continued the very same war, only on yet another section of the front, a war against the Kremlin’s occupation regime. My grandfather had such a terrible hatred of communism, of Bolshevism, of the Sovok.”

Throughout Planet War II, the Ukrainian nationalists and fascists collaborated with the Nazis and committed horrific crimes. One particular of the most heinous was the massacre of Babyn Yar, which killed far more than 33,000 Jewish guys, girls and kids. In total, the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union price the lives of about 27 million men and women. The third German try to manage Ukraine and Russia follows in this dark tradition.

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