Statement of FIR one year after the beginning of the war in Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The invasion has caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and has exacerbated the role of NATO in the area.
As a direct outcome of the Russian decision, not only about 16 million Ukrainians had to flee the country, but other hundreds million people must bear the consequences of an economic war, where energy costs have risen extremely, fertilizer and grain have become almost unaffordable for the poorer countries of the world and speculators are using this war to increase their profits.
We are witnessing that this war is increasingly taking on the character of a proxy war between Russia and the NATO states through massive deliveries of offensive weapons from the NATO arsenal and logistical support. In addition, the European Union is involved in this war, instead of following the way of negotiations, which started years ago with the Minsk treaties.
Now we can hear more and more voices of reason around the world, even former military officers and diplomats, calling for an immediate ceasefire without preconditions and for the start of negotiations between the warring parties. The November 2022 appeal of the World Veterans Federation (WVF) and the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) therefore states:
“Weapons will never bring peace, diplomacy and negotiations are the only way. This is necessary above all to save the lives of the civilian population on both sides.
In this, we also see ourselves in agreement with Pope Francis, who has urgently warned of the danger of nuclear war, which will have catastrophic consequences not only on the battlefield, but also for all European countries and definitely for all humanity.”
The international peace forces therefore call on Russia and Ukraine to accept the offers of mediation and dialogue made by the United Nations and various states. This is the only way to stop the war and save human lives. We welcome the position taken by Latin American leaders at the CELAC summit in Argentina, who reaffirmed the principle of “No to war and yes to dialogue and cooperation” – that means no arms deliveries and no sanctions. We call the people in all countries to strengthen their public activities for peace. If the voice of the people will be louder, the governments will react on it.
FIR has already appealed in the spring of 2022 to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War in the various European countries and Israel to use their social and political influence and work for the immediate cessation of hostilities in this war.
“Turn to the leaders of your countries. Ask them to bring about an immediate cessation of all hostilities through dialogue with political leaders in Russia and Ukraine, as well as with representatives of the military on both sides, and to ensure that the delivery of offensive weapons does not prolong these hostilities. An immediate cease-fire is necessary to protect the civilian population, which includes many former Soviet veterans and their families. They know better than anyone that the weapons must remain silent. Arms supplies will not bring peace, only a cessation of fighting and serious negotiations between the warring parties.”
This is the way of peoples and life, the dream of a better, more peaceful world. This is the way of today’s partisans. Partisans of peace, partisans of humanity!

The heavy earthquakes of the weekend in the Kurdish border area between Syria and Turkey have claimed nearly 5,000 lives according to information confirmed so far. Several hundred buildings in the affected major cities have been destroyed or are in danger of collapse. Several thousand people are still missing under the destruction.
The FIR expresses its deep sympathy and solidarity with the people in the disaster region. It is important that comprehensive humanitarian aid is now provided to both sides. We welcome expressly the employment of disaster aids from all European countries. Aid has already been pledged from Asia as well.
In the interests of the people, the vast majority of whom are Kurds living here, we must not allow political reservations to prevent such assistance from reaching only part of the devastated areas. Humanitarian aid must be cross-border – that is the solidarity that is needed today.

October 24-25, 2022, the International Antifascist Conference of FIR, supported by the Serbian veterans’ organization SUBNOR, took place in Belgrade. Delegates of veterans and antifascist organizations from more than 20 countries discussed the danger of right wing development in Europe of today. This conference was well attended by the media. The main TV-news on Monday evening reported a three-minute report. Several representatives of the Serbian government attended the conference. The chief of the presidential office and the new elected minister for foreign affairs spoke in the opening of this event. It was also an honour that the president of the World Veterans Federation (FMAC) attended this event. More than 30 interventions, including a video-message from the Russian Veterans Union, have been presented. The final message summarized the main topics of the conference:

The danger of right wing development in Europe of today was confirmed in the last weeks not only by the results of the electoral campaign in Sweden and Italy. We experience for the first time since decades that a prime minister of an important European country never denied her fascist origin. This strengthen the right wing tendencies, we have to face in other states like Hungary, Poland and several Baltic Republics. Not only in governments, but also on regional level, right wing tendencies influence the policy in Europe, as we can see in Belgium, Spain, and in Germany too. In that way, they influence also the political debates and decisions in the European Parliament.

These forces stand for racism and xenophobia, hate speeches, anti-democratic tendencies and social segregation, denying the right of diversity, fascist violence in reality against refugees and foreigners, demolition of meeting points of the democratic organizations et.al. In addition, we realize desecration of memorials, and/or synagogues or mosques.

The growing of the right wing is connected with the war in Ukraine too. Although right wing groups sometimes call for “peace”, they see themselves as profiteer of this war. They expect as consequence of the social problems for the people and protests against it a collapse of the democratic system in European countries. 

FIR underlines its position as we called from the very beginning of the war in Ukraine:

This war cannot be legitimized in the name of antifascism. FIR call for an immediate ceasefire and start of international negotiations. Weapons will never bring peace, diplomacy and negotiations are the only way. This is necessary especially to save the life of the civilian peoples.

The second side of the medal are problematic tendencies of historical revisionism, the demolishing of memorial places and memorials itself, as we experience it in several European countries. While neo-fascists destroyed memorial trees for prisoners in Concentration Camp Buchenwald, in other countries the central memorials for the soviet liberators are demolished by state authorities. It goes together with historical revisionist tendencies in schools and public institutions. More than ever, we raise our voice to protest against such development and we engage in the strengthening of antifascism in civil society to preserve the legacy of the resistance fighters, the survivors and liberators. This must be a task of the education of young generations

The International Anti-Fascist Conference calls upon all democrats to be aware of right wing populism, far-right “promises” to the real threats to our lives. We draw the attention to this danger and we welcome the civil society, the organizations of veterans, todays’ anti-fascists, trade unions, Human right organizations, youth movement and initiatives, and the conservatives too, to come together. Build networks and movements open for all people willing to defend democracy, freedom, and/or the political and social rights of all human beings in the respective country.

We need to stand firmly against the extreme right-wing danger.