The Role of Russia and NATO in Ukraine's Civil War

Democracy and Class Struggle agrees with David Mandel's emphasis on the internal contradictions in the Ukraine and their exploitation by external forces like US and Russia.

This interview expresses the personal opinions of David Mandel, and Democracy and Class Struggle like him have been advocates of a Federal solution to Ukraine's National and Regional Questions.

However we have seen no serious movement in this direction from Kiev or  even from Donetsk and Lugansk and a rejection of both of the Federal solution.

The Time for Federalism may have already passed

Politics is not determined by wishful thinking but by class and national struggle and that clearly indicates the existence has a result of Kiev's War on the People of the Donbass of separate Republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

If such a War had not been waged by Kiev, a Federal Solution may have been possible but that is wishful thinking now - it has been waged and the dead are much higher than offical figures and is possibily in tens of thousands and marks the reason why the Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk exist in the first place.

While nothing is impossible, it is highly unlikely they will ever be re-incoporated into a Kiev based unitary State again has their wish has far back as 1994 for Federalisation was also completely ignored following the foundation of the Ukrainian State in 1991.

The blood and sacrifice of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk have earned them the right on the political stage to this time have their rights asserted and not ignored has in the past.

It has also at last produced for them local leaders like Aleksandr Vladimirovich Zakharchenko and not strange right wing politicos from Russia who are better off doing ceremonial Tsarist battles than fighting in the trenches of class and national war has the recent victories against Kiev have shown.