Statement of the International Action Center on Jan. 31 on the resumed assault on the Donbass republics.

Donetsk and Lugansk are again under fierce attack from the U.S.-funded and U.S.-armed Ukrainian junta. Civilians and troops are being killed again in greater numbers near the front line as the Ukrainian fascists and military try to advance.

Many people in the capital of Donetsk are without electricity and running water in the dead of winter. A school and hospital in Makeyevka were targeted by Ukraine on Jan. 30. Overnight, Ukrainian forces launched more than 100 GRAD rockets at Yasinovataya. Apartment buildings and homes in Donetsk city have been shelled for several days.

Two hundred miners at the Zasyadko coal mine are trapped underground after electricity was knocked out by Ukrainian shelling. Officials in Donetsk have ordered the evacuation of the capital’s Kiyevsky district because of the ongoing attacks.

After assuming the presidency on Jan. 20, Donald Trump acted quickly to enforce repressive measures against poor and working people at home. He was quick to ban legal residents and visitors from returning to the U.S. based on their religion and country of origin. He was quick to announce plans for “secure zones” in Syria in violation of Syrian sovereignty. He was quick to stand behind a massacre carried out on his watch by U.S. military forces in Yemen that killed more than 30 people, including children.

Donald Trump claims he wants better relations with Russia. But has he taken any steps to stop Ukrainian attacks in Donbass? He has not said a word. Even the lifting of sanctions on Russia is now “not a sure thing,” according to Trump.

The deaths and destruction being carried out by Kiev are war crimes. And the blood is on Trump’s hands just as much as Ukrainian President Poroshenko’s.

During the Obama administration, we demanded that the U.S. stop its bloody proxy war in Donbass. And now, in Trump’s administration, we demand that the U.S. stop its bloody proxy war in Donbass.

Then and now, we say: End funding, arming and giving political protection to the Kiev regime! End the sanctions against Russia and Donbass! Recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation! Recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics! Reparations for the rebuilding of the war-torn Donbass!

Solidarity with Novorossiya and Antifascists in Ukraine!

International Action Center