On Wednesday, June 4, following the announcement of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), the government in attendance at the "Contact Group" on Ukraine in Brussels issued a Press Release [1]. It further demonstrated what had been outlined in the Strategic Defence Review, namely that these war preparations to put Britain at "war-fighting readiness" are to back up Britain's increasing participation in NATO's dangerous proxy war against Russia. Britain's military, special forces, private security and armament manufacturers are all using Ukrainians as cannon fodder and want to test-bed their dangerous military interventions in this war now and in the future. Now that US President Trump has called for an end to the war, Britain alongside France, Germany and others are in particular manoeuvring to ensure that their proxy regime in Ukraine keeps the war going whilst claiming now to be in favour of a "ceasefire". This claim is a hoax; these European states are doing all they can to sabotage negotiations to end the war and are continuing to arm Ukraine. They refuse to pay attention to the terms insisted on by Russia which that country views as necessary to secure a lasting peace and prevent a NATO-provoked war in the future also.

The press release stated that the "Ministry of Defence said it is increasing its drone supply to Ukraine tenfold, taking the total target for this year to 100,000." This followed what government claimed was a success as Kyiv's "Operation Spiderweb" which destroyed some of Russia's strategic nuclear bombers deep inside Russian territory. Defence Secretary John Healey boasted that "the UK is stepping up its support for Ukraine by delivering hundreds of thousands more drones this year and completing a major milestone in the delivery of critical artillery ammunition." This refers to the government's £4.5 billion package of military aid in 2025, and that the UK has completed a delivery of 140,000 artillery munitions since the start of the year. The press statements boasted that Ukrainian units have confirmed that UK-provided drones "currently kill more people than artillery on the frontline in Ukraine".

The SDR declares that Britain's "military deployments beyond the Euro-Atlantic" should be used for "match fitness" of the armed forces "able to return at speed to the Euro-Atlantic if necessary". It is the UK government which is more and more dangerously involved in threatening peace and security in Britain itself by involving its special forces and war industries, with its proxy regime in Kyiv targeting civilian infrastructure in Russia with its drones and missiles. These even hit Russian nuclear assets that are still covered by international conventions against nuclear war and are an extreme provocation against Russia. [2]

Previously, Anglo/US-led NATO staged coups d'état to achieve regime change in various countries, including Ukraine; it rehabilitated neo-Nazi elements first in Bosnia and other countries of the former Yugoslavia, expanded them into Iraq and Afghanistan by creating ISIS, and overthrowing one government after another, leaving nothing but devastation and misery in their wake. It is such a regime that the US brought to power in Ukraine, where the dregs of the anti-communist Nazi-collaborators of World War II played a particularly heinous role in the US-driven coup d'état, with Britain's full support and involvement [3], and their ambitions for regime change right across Eurasia and Russia.

What is not being discussed is that the period we are living in at this time is one of extreme transition, disequilibrium and rapid changes which affect the citizens of each country and the peoples of the entire world. There is recognition that this turning-point came into being with the collapse of the international system called a "bipolar system". Under that system, the world was supposed to be divided and decisions were made between two superpowers that built their own coalitions and alliances to carry out divisions, contention and collusion in the world on their own. The collapse of the state system of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the international system it was part of, the bipolar system, left the world situation in flux.

It was said that henceforth there would be one superpower whose image was no longer tied to a territorial base. The argument of nation states being autonomous and having their own sovereignty was given short shrift. The superpower turned out to be the United States. The logic was that the US was the "indispensable superpower" because of its economic capacity, military projection, cultural influences, and so on. The US is spoken about as a superpower that sits atop the world, not limited to a nation-state or its territorial integrity.

Not surprisingly, the ensuing years have seen the use of force to settle conflicts by bullying countries to submit or face destruction at the hands of the Anglo/US-led NATO countries. Extreme violence and crimes against humanity are the result today with Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinians, beyond the control of the United Nations and international rule of law. Britain's continued support for arming Israel and its involvement in attempting to take a lead in escalating NATO's proxy war in Ukraine is a matter of huge concern for the working class and people of Britain, and the people of the whole world.

It shows that, today, profound changes are required to create an international rule of law which holds countries to account for violating it.

Notes
1. Tenfold increase in UK drone deliveries for Ukraine at NATO contact Ukraine summit, June 4
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tenfold-increase-in-uk-drone-deliveries-for-ukraine-at-50-nation-ukraine-summit
2. Russia's nuclear assets are covered by international conventions that regulate nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear war. Russia is a party to several key treaties, including:
- Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) - Russia is one of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states under the NPT, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.
- New START Treaty - A bilateral arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, limiting the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads.
- Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) - Russia has signed and ratified the CTBT, which bans all nuclear explosions for military or civilian purposes.
- Geneva Protocol & Biological Weapons Convention - While not directly related to nuclear weapons, Russia is also a signatory to treaties banning biological and chemical weapons.
3. Britain's Interference in Ukraine Can Never Be the Road To Peace, Workers' Weekly, April 2 2022
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-22/ww22-07/ww22-07-01.htm

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