THE WAR IN UKRAINE DRAGS ON: WHOSE INTERESTS DOES IT REALLY SERVE?

New Zealand's election campaign grinds on but none of the political parties seem eager to talk about Ukraine and their support for America's proxy war with Russia. And the corporate media doesn't seem interested enough to challenge them.

LAST FRIDAY the members of the Canadian Parliament, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rose to their feet to give not one, but two, standing ovations for 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka. He was hailed as 'a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero' who fought valiantly for Ukraine during World War Two. The ovations took place shortly after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, delivered an address to the parliament, and urged Canada to continue its support for Ukraine in its continuing war with Russia. According to the Canadian government, it has already committed $1.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.

The embarrassing problem for the Canadian parliament though was the elderly man they hailed as a war hero was not all he appeared to be. He actually fought with the First Ukrainian Division, a Nazi military unit. It was better known as the Waffen-SS 'Galicia' Division. Members of the Waffen SS were accused of murdering Polish and Jewish civilians. The Nuremberg tribunals found the Waffen-SS guilty as an organisation of war crimes but not the Galicia division.

Canada made the controversial division to allow some six hundred members of the division to live in Canada after the Second World War. Some forty years ago, during the 1980s, there was a government commission of inquiry into whether Canada had become a haven for war criminals.

When the truth about Yaroslay Hunka spread though the mainstream media and the social media, Justin Trudeau hastily backpedaled. He claimed he had known nothing about Hunka's background and said that the incident was 'certainly unacceptable' and 'deeply embarrassing to the parliament of Canada and by extension to all Canadians.'

But questions are being asked about how the Prime Minister's office could have indeed been unaware of Hunka’s background. Questions are also being asked about what Zelensky knew about Hunka. He has made no comment, and no apology seems likely.

In an effort to maintain popular support for this war, many inconvenient facts have been swept under the carpet or rejected as 'pro-Kremlin garbage' - in the infamous words of RNZ boss Paul Thompson. 

Within the corporate media there has been next to no discussion on how the United States deliberately sabotaged a draft agreement which might have ended the war in April 2022. The agreement would have seen Russia withdraw its military forces in return for Ukrainian neutrality and remaining outside of Nato. There has also been no discussion on how the United States pressured Ukraine into a counter offensive that has provided few gains, but it has benefited the arms industry.

And in defending the 'freedom' of the Ukrainian people, Western governments and its media cheerleaders have turned a blind eye to Zelensky banning opposition political parties and suppressing Ukraine's independent media. Zelensky has also done little to counter the influence of neo-fascist elements in the military and in civil society.

As well the Zelensky government continues to persecute peace activists such as Yurii Sheliazhenko. He has recently been formally charged with justifying Russian aggression. Despite the charge being a total fabrication, he faces a lengthy prison sentence. But nothing has been said by western governments that howl with outrage when Russia locks up its political dissidents.

As Abby Martin of the Empire Files has commented. the role of the media has been to 'propagandise' the political and economic interests of the United States.

Despite the billions of dollars' worth of arms and resources that continue to be poured into Ukraine, no end to this war is in sight. Indeed, its likely to grind on into the 2030s. Bloomberg News reports:

'The US and its allies in the Group of Seven now expect the war in Ukraine may drag on for years to come and are building that possibility into their military and financial planning.

'A senior official from one European G-7 country said the war may last as much as six or seven more years and that allies need to plan financially to continue support for Kyiv for such a long conflict.

'That’s much longer than many officials had expected earlier this year, but slow progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive in recent months has tempered expectations.'

Despite New Zealand's claims of an 'independent' foreign policy, our political parties are united in their support of America's proxy war with Ukraine that will continue to carry the risk of nuclear engagement.  It is little more than support for the interests of a declining American empire.