Brief overview of the Resistance to war in Russia and Ukraine
nowarsolidarite, April 2, 2022
(Article written by Russian anarchosyndicalists)
The current Russian-Ukrainian military conflict has led to a wild explosion of the most disgusting and cavernous nationalism on both sides of the front. In Russia, Power calls to “crush” the enemy, in Ukraine – to fight for the “motherland” to the last man. In both states, propaganda seeks to “dehumanize” the enemy as much as possible, and unfortunately, many ordinary citizens fall into this trap set by the leadership. Even many “leftists” and “anarchists” eagerly rush to support the bloodshed, intoxicated by the patriotic poison. Unfortunately, this is always the case at the beginning of wars waged by states. One need only recall the hysterical processions of the masses marching [shouting “To Berlin” or “To Paris”] on the eve and in the first weeks of World War I. Then several years of war passed – and [in 1917] the masses, exasperated by hardship, deceit and suffering – almost suppressed the world of the States and the Capital, which had given rise to that war … Now, alas, we are infinitely far from all that. Certainly, it also seemed very far in August 1914…
The actions of the people of Russia and Ukraine against “military operations”, hostilities, destruction and bloodshed, deserve all the more attention and respect. The month since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops already allows a brief overview of the main forms and methods of anti-war protests.
Let’s start with Russia. Here, from the very first day, mass demonstrations against the war began, and continued non-stop for two to three weeks. At the beginning, they were usually held daily, and all over the country. All these rallies were illegal and consequently brutally dispersed. In addition to street rallies and demonstrations, other methods were also used – putting up posters, drawing graffiti, handing out leaflets, distributing stickers and handing out anti-war materials.
There were also some more radical actions. For example, in Moscow, student Anastasia Levashova threw a Molotov cocktail at the police on February 24; the court sentenced her to 2 years in prison. On the night of February 28, a military recruitment office in Lukhovitsy near Moscow was set on fire. In St. Petersburg, a policeman was sprayed with pepper spray. On the night of March 1, in Smolensk, a police station was set on fire. On the night of March 3, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the windows of a recruitment center in Voronezh. It was also reported that two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the wall of the Kremlin in Moscow. On March 5, an attempt was made to set fire to the recruitment office in Berezovsky (Sverdlovsk region) with a Molotov cocktail…
Most protests are spontaneous. In a number of cases they are called by the bourgeois liberal opposition, and on March 8 it was called by feminist organizations. Unfortunately, not all demonstrators can be considered truly anti-war, that is, truly opposed to all warmongers. Among the demonstrators (especially liberals) there are many supporters of the government of Ukraine and there were also some NATO sympathizers.
The exact number of demonstrators is unknown, but the number of cities in which demonstrations took place and the number of people detained and suppressed during the demonstrations speak volumes about the scale of the movement. In total, demonstrations were held in more than 100 towns and villages. According to human rights activists, on March 13 alone, police arrested approximately 15,000 people during the demonstrations.
Only a few people were released with a simple “warning” [especially in the first days of the anti-war protests]; but thousands were fined or administratively arrested. In St. Petersburg alone, as of March 25, the courts have considered 3,710 cases: 861 people were fined, 2,456 were subjected to administrative arrest, 123 were sentenced to hard labor [TIG].
Some protesters face even harsher penalties, namely criminal sanctions. New laws on spreading “false information” and “discrediting the army” carry prison sentences of up to 15 years. In the month since the outbreak of hostilities, 60 criminal cases have been filed in some way related to the protests. 46 people have been criminally prosecuted (in connection with this new law). Nine of them are in detention, three are under house arrest, and two are banned from certain activities. At least five of the defendants have fled from Russia. In total, trials have been held in 22 regions of Russia: Adygea, Tatarstan, Karelia, Moscow, Ingushetia, St. Petersburg, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Tyumen, Belgorod, Vladimir, Moscow, Tula, Sverdlovsk, Pskovskaya, Samara, Rostov, Novosibirsk regions, Crimean territories, Primorsky, Krasnodar and Trans-Baikal.
Criminal cases are investigated under 14 different articles of the Criminal Code: 10 under the new Article 207. 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on “false military information”, 9 under Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Part 2) “Hate-motivated vandalism” (used against at least three street artists – in Moscow, Vladimir and Yekaterinburg), 9 – under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Part 1) on “the use of violence against representatives of the authorities”, 2 – on charges of “justification of terrorism” (in Kazan and Petrozavodsk), etc… In addition, there are charges of “hooliganism”, “insult to a government official”, “incitement to extremist activities”, “incitement to hatred”, “stockpiling ammunition”, “incitement to mass riots” and even “desecration of the bodies of the dead and their burial sites”.
In Ukraine, anti-war demonstrations are even more difficult than in Russia. In addition to repression by the authorities, who have begun to ban and arrest political opponents and pass anti-terrorist laws (including sentences for “collaboration with the aggressor,” “looting” and “high treason” ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment), the conditions of the hostilities themselves prevent protests. How can you go to street actions under a hail of Russian missiles and shells that directly threaten your life? However, it is possible, on the basis of fragmentary information, to present at least a general picture of what is going on.
One of the most common actions objectively directed against the consequences of military conflict is the so-called “looting”, of which many cases have been reported in many cities of Ukraine. Of course, a wide variety of incidents of different natures can be included in this category – from banditry, murders and robberies against the civilian population to real social protests, when the inhabitants of cities and villages, deprived of food and other essential goods, simply expropriate them from stores. Such “popular expropriations” and “food riots” have been reported in cities controlled by Ukrainian authorities, and in those occupied by Russian troops.
There were attempts by the population to stop the entry of Russian military equipment into residential areas to avoid their destruction. For example, in Koryukovka (Chernihiv region), on February 27, local residents came out to meet the Russian tanks, stopped the column and began negotiations with it. As a result, they agreed that the army would not enter the city. [We also saw the images of the Ukrainians chasing the Russian soldiers who were trying to occupy their houses, or the crowds who were pushing back the military trucks and telling them to go back home.]
On March 26, the mayor of the Ukrainian town of Slavutych held talks with the Russian troops who entered the town and agreed with them on demilitarization. He assured them that there were no soldiers or weapons in the city and persuaded the soldiers to leave. The Russian army promised “not to search the houses”, but people must voluntarily hand over weapons not intended for hunting. In Slavutych, the local Ukrainian authorities remained in place, to which the Russian side is transferring humanitarian aid. [However, this is not the case everywhere …]
On the other hand, there are testimonies that the residents also demand that the Ukrainian army does not install military equipment in their residential areas. A video of a similar demonstration in Kharkov circulated on social networks.
Besides this, it is worth talking about disobedience to orders and desertion on both sides. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify the reality of the many rumors circulating. The media have been talking about low morale and low desire to fight of Russian military units sent to Ukraine. The Ukrainian side claimed that about 200 Russian sailors from the 155th brigade refused to participate in military operations, but this claim cannot be verified. It was also reported that military personnel of the 810th Marine Brigade stationed in Crimea refused to participate in the landing in the Odessa region.
There are other testimonies, very fragmentary, which do not allow one to judge the extent of the phenomenon. The mother of one of the soldiers assigned to a unit in the Leningrad region said that her son, like many others who had been drafted into the army, had been forced to sign a contract with the army. In January, a unit was sent to Kursk, then to Belgorod, and then they began to be sent to fight in Ukraine. “According to the woman, soldiers are taken to Ukraine to fight, but some of them refuse, they are threatened with a trial for desertion.”
A contract soldier from Ufa, Albert Sakhibgareev, said that his brigade, which was in late February on exercises in the Belgorod region, was given machine guns and orders to fire from artillery facilities “when ordered.” The soldiers began to doubt that they were training when return fire flew in their direction. After that, Sakhibgareev watched the news on his cell phone and discovered that Russia had sent troops to Ukraine. A week later, he was beaten by a sub-officer, left the unit and returned home to Ufa. He faces 7 years in prison for desertion.
12 fighters of the OMON [special forces of the Russian Ministry of the Interior, depend on the National Guard] from Krasnodar, as well as the commander Farid Chitaev, refused to enter Crimea. The Russian Guard fighters explained that they refused to carry out an illegal order – none of the fighters had been informed about the tasks and conditions of the special operation. No one agreed to participate. The fighters were dismissed from the service.
After the destruction of their platoon by heavy equipment, several surviving fighters of the Izhevsk OMON left the Ukrainian territory and sent their letters of resignation.
At the end of March, the former president of South Ossetia admitted that some of the soldiers, from the 4th military base of the Russian Federation Guard, recruited from this republic to participate in the hostilities in Ukraine had returned from the front without permission.
Also in Ukraine, not everyone is willing to “defend the fatherland”. This is evidenced by the posters seen in the early days of the conflict in Odessa. In black and white, the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sternly asks: “You don’t want to fight? That means you don’t love your country”. Of course, the very appearance of such agitation testifies to the fact that there are a number of “unloving” people.
The Ukrainian authorities announced the general mobilization and that they would not let men aged 18-60 leave the country. Nevertheless, as fellow anarchists in Ukraine report, in reality, large-scale mobilization is not working, unlike in 2014-2015, when mass raids to enlist those liable to military service in Ukraine were commonplace. In the first week of hostilities, they tried to give summonses to people passing through checkpoints, but this was later declared illegal.
However, many men are attempting to cross the border illegally into neighboring countries. In early March, a BBC Ukrainian correspondent said that at the Mogilev-Podolsky checkpoint on the border with Moldova, “every second, if not in every first car, there were men of service age trying to flee abroad, but they were turned back.” As the border guard told me, “some cars just turned around, in others, the women took the wheel and the men left.
According to a deputy of the Mukachevo city council in Transcarpathia, every day hundreds of men, contrary to the current martial law, cross the border with the EU countries. The crossing costs a lot of money. In Transcarpathia, this parallel trade has already reached an industrial scale. The cost of a certificate and transfer to Poland reaches 2,000 euros [for the record, in 2021 the average salary of a doctor was 9,000 hryvnia, about 260 euros, and 7,000 hryvnia (about 203 euros) for registered nurses].
In the Odessa region, smugglers take 1,500 dollars per person. The news website “Edition LIGA.net”, which has studied this “market”, indicates that it can even reach sums ten times higher. Those fleeing the war are sent to Poland, Romania, Moldova, to a lesser extent – to Hungary. More than 1,000 men of military age were arrested at the border during the 21 days of the conflict, according to the Ukrainian border service.
Recently, the press has reported the existence of organized channels for transporting people across the border in the Vinnitsa, Chernivtsi, Odessa and Lviv regions.
Of course, not all men who seek to leave the country illegally should be considered anti-war. There are many rich people among them [the Ukrainian companions of the Black Flag group had reported that already on February 16, a week before Putin started the war, Ukrainian oligarchs had started to send their families abroad for safety]. Finding money to pay for the border crossing is not an easy task. Maybe someone will sell everything, but the rich don’t care. They start and provoke wars, then hide safely abroad, leaving ordinary people to kill each other and die for them. The same phenomenon can be observed among the Russian “elite” who have started to emigrate.
As of March 28, more than 340 criminal offenses have been registered in Ukraine on the grounds of “reduction of Ukraine’s defense capacity under martial law”, of which about 100 are for high treason and collaboration. More than 1,700 Ukrainian male citizens of conscription age have been identified as wishing to illegally cross the country’s border. This was announced by the communications adviser of the State Bureau of Investigation, Tatyana Sapyan.
In an attempt to crack down on desertion, the authorities have submitted to the parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) the draft law No. 7171, which threatens up to 10 years in prison for men of military age who illegally left Ukraine under martial law.
Finally, residents of the Donetsk Republic also report forced mobilization. Men are seized in the street, armed and sent to the front without any preparation. Those who can, try to hide in their homes and do not go out. This is also one of the ways to resist the war!
[Translation: Solidarity Initiative Olga Taratuta, translator’s comment in brackets]
Note of Sansnom: the original article contains many clickable links to various sources, which can be found in the original.
