Nato forces in Britain, France, Germany and the United States are planning to arm Ukraine to the teeth. Germany and the US last week announced they would give Ukraine 40 Marder and 50 Bradley offensive fighting vehicles. France said it would provide some 30 light AMX-10 RC mobile “tank destroyers”.

Now Britain is considering a similar move which could see at least ten Challenger 2 tanks sent, costing £4.2 million each. It’s the first time Nato will admit to sending weapons with the intention of hitting Russia, rather than defending Ukraine.

Last March, US president Joe Biden warned, “The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks going in with American pilots and American crews—just understand, that’s called World War III.”

Yet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said back in April he wanted “Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine”. And just last week a US official said, “We’re not saying to Kyiv, ‘Don’t strike the Russians’.” 

It shows the war was never about defending Ukrainians. It was always about plans to grow Nato and maintain global hegemony. Sending weapons to put Ukraine on the offensive is a dangerous escalation. Nato leaders know—but don’t care—that they are gambling with the lives of millions of people.

The World At War—a trade union issue, Stop The War trade union conference, Sat 21 Jan, 10.30am, Hamilton House London.
Stop The War in Ukraine national demonstration, Sat 25 Feb, 12 noon, central London. For more details on both events, go to stopwar.org.uk/