On Tuesday, April 23, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his visit to Warsaw, Poland, claimed that the government had announced the largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine, just days after the US released some $60 billion in funds and loans in another attempt to prop up the Anglo-US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The government press release said that £500 million additional funding [1] takes Britain's military support for Ukraine to £3 billion this financial year - it "will be used to rapidly deliver urgently-needed ammunition, air defence, drones and engineering support. The drones will be procured in the UK and the funds will support a scale-up in domestic defence supply chains." In other words, much of the procurement will go to profit British war industries and furthering the unacceptable dominance of British- and Israeli-owned war industries in the British economy.

Also, the government press release only mentioned at the end that the Prime Minister was to have "his first in-person meeting with new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk", and "will seek to deepen UK-Poland ties across a range of issues". However, these ties were clearly on Britain's terms and not those of the Polish people when it was outlined that "he will offer to deploy an RAF Typhoon Squadron to carry out Nato Air Policing over Poland next year" and to "further boost trade and support UK companies looking to invest in Poland", with an announced intention to "triple UK Export Finance funding available for Poland from £5 billion to £15 billion" in loans to back up British exports which Sunak called a "generous offer".

In other words, Britain's real intentions in Sunak's visit to Poland was to escalate war preparations and British interests in Poland and Britain's dangerous attempts to try and shore-up NATO's failing proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. Reports further revealed that this was the justification for the Prime Minister announcing on his visit that "he would lift" the UK "defence spending to 2.5% of GDP a year by 2030", saying that the British arms industry must be on a "war footing". Standing alongside NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg in Warsaw, according to the news reports Sunak said that Britain would spend an additional £75 billion over six years to increase the production of munitions and drones, making Britain the second-largest military spender in NATO. Sunak had previously said that the 2.5% goal would be met when the economic conditions allow. Not discussed, of course, was the deteriorating situation for Polish and British farmers as well as Polish and British workers, accompanied by the wrecking of both economies by diverting huge resources of the economy to military spending and war preparations.

Polish farmers block Poland Ukraine border.

Rishi Sunak, speaking to reporters travelling with him, was reported as boasting that Britain had been the first to supply Ukraine with main battle tanks and storm shadow missiles during the period of the failed Ukrainian "counter-offensive" against Russia last year. Now, just days after the US House of Representatives and then the Senate approved a $61 billion (£48 billion) military package for Ukraine, with Biden subsequently admitting to sending in secret more than 100 ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) long range missiles there, Sunak himself said that Britain was sending more than 1,600 "strike" and "air defence" missiles to Ukraine.

Clearly, Britain's desperate escalation of their proxy war in Ukraine has no concern for the deaths of Ukrainian and Russian people. The more the Ukrainian regime fires these British and US missiles into Russian territories, the more the Russian forces respond. It is now widely reported that as a result of these missile exchanges, Ukraine's missile defence system has been destroyed. Recent appeals of the Zelensky regime for an increased supply from their sponsors for US Patriot defensive missile systems has been met with marked reluctance from these sponsors of war. The US and many EU countries do not want to deplete their own defensive missile systems and send them to Ukraine.

When asked about this by reporters travelling with him, Sunak was forced to admit that "air defence was one of the critical areas where Ukraine needs support" and he said that he would "talk about Ukraine's air defences in meetings with NATO General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and also discuss the issue with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday". However, reports emerging from Sunak's meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz do not mention such discussions. On the contrary, Sunak and Scholz announced joint "plans to develop remote-controlled Howitzer 155mm wheeled artillery systems to be fitted to Boxer armoured fighting vehicles" as well as increasing joint shell production and other war preparations. Thus, the crisis is deepening in these leading NATO countries as they strive to direct their economies into further militarisation and war escalation.

With this deepening crisis, the hope that the US, as well as the old European powers of the EU and Britain, could make gains by using Ukraine in this proxy war against Russia is fast receding. The fuelling of the conflict by the US, Britain and others using the Ukrainian regime and Ukrainian people as cannon fodder has not brought the outcome they hoped for of defeating Russia.

Even before Russia's military operation, the US and Britain directed the Ukrainian regime for their own ends in repeatedly refusing to implement the UN-backed Minsk agreements on Donbas. Anglo-US and NATO forces threatened Russia in the Black Sea and with their military and strategic agreements with Ukraine, egging on the Ukrainian regime in Kiev to seize the territories of Crimea and Donbas that Ukraine had never controlled since the US and EU backed the Maidan coup in 2014.

In doing so, the US and Britain dismissed the claims of the people of Crimea, Donbas and Ukraine for a peaceful resolution of these issues, a claim of the people which is backed by established international law. The sovereign rights of nations and peoples, irrespective of ethnic make-up, can only be resolved by the peoples themselves and not by this so-called "rules-based international order" imposed by NATO and particularly by the US and Britain. These powers only recognise "sovereign territories" when it suits their interests and regardless of the claims of the people who live there, and are only too willing to violate a nation's sovereignty. As the world can see, this they are doing now in supporting Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and refusing to recognise the claims and sovereign rights of the Palestinian people.

RCPB(ML) calls on the working class and people of Britain to continue to condemn and step up their opposition to the warmongering actions of the British government, and to reject this latest dangerous and desperate attempt to escalate the conflict in Ukraine against the interests of the people of Ukraine and Russia. British imperialist warmongering alongside the US must be brought to an end. Such a stand is vital for the future peaceful development of the world under the control of the people themselves.

Fight for an Anti-War Government!

No to NATO! Yes to Peace!

Notes
1. The government press release says the military aid will be:
60 boats including offshore raiding craft, rigid raiding craft and dive boats as well as maritime guns
More than 1,600 strike and air defence missiles, as well as additional Storm Shadow long-range precision-guided missiles.
More than 400 vehicles, including 160 protected mobility 'Husky' vehicles, 162 armoured vehicles and 78 all-terrain vehicles.
Nearly 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-to-announce-largest-ever-military-aid-package-to-ukraine-on-visit-to-poland

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