Anti-conscription rally in village of Dneprovka, Zaporizhye region of Ukraine, Feb 2, 2015
"Imagine all the people, living life in peace." Maybe John Lennon's famous musical lyric can be called naive, but it's a hopeful vision all the same. Antiwar protests, mass soldier desertions, refusal to serve and fight in defiance of government orders and repression - these have stopped many wars once people decide there is nothing righteous in killing their fellow humans.
The current war situation in eastern Ukraine and
the decision of the government in Kyiv to begin a new, fourth wave of military conscription and mobilization is unleashing a firestorm of mass opposition and refusal to fight. Protest is rising in all the regions of the country. For sure, there are still nationalist fanatics and far-right militarists exercising violence and intimidation against antiwar protests, but their capacity to stamp out protest is diminishing.
Ukraine is historically a peaceful nation. For some time now, it has avoided military conflicts like those that have flared elsewhere in eastern Europe - Yugoslavia, Georgia, etc. That came to a crashing end last year when the Kyiv government launched its 'anti-terrorist operation' against the people in the east of the country. But from the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has seen refusals by soldiers to fire on their fellow citizens, desertions from the army and refusals to show up for conscription.
Women - the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of military conscripts - have held protests and even riots against the war or against force military service.The protests have been sparked, first of all, by the fact that many Ukrainians do not accept the interpretation of the war as offered by the government. They don't necessarily see foreign (ie Russian) aggression. They only know that when a Ukrainian soldier lifts his gun or artillery barrel, it is a compatriot, a fellow Ukrainian, who appears in the gunsight.
Secondly, many people don't want to die for the current government which they view as composed of extreme nationalists and neoliberals.
They are unwilling to be cannon fodder dying for the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs whose only apparent interest is to pursue a civil war, siphon Western financial aid and suppress opposition to their rule. A young woman
recently voiced this sentiment searingly at a rally held in her village in south-central Ukraine.
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