The right-wing regime in Kiev is using war hysteria to bolster its support within the country – at least in the west – but news has been emerging of Ukrainian soldiers refusing to fight in the east, of their mothers and wives demanding they be brought back home. Here we republish an article by Andriy Manchuk in which he reminds today’s Kiev regime of how Tsar Nicholas II’s regime ended after whipping up war hysteria.

According to a report in the Volhynia Post, on May 27, soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 51st Brigade refused to be transported to Mykolayiv to fight the rebels. The soldiers refused to move and started to unload machinery and equipment. 

Further to the report we published about a mutiny of soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 51st Brigade, here are some additional news which indicate that the mutiny is spreading to the 2nd Battalion based in Rivne.

Further to our report on the strike of Donetsk coal miners against Kiev's "anti terrorist operation" we publish here an eyewitness account by Stanislav Retinskyi which was published in the Ukrainian left wing site Liva. The author talks to the miners and explains how they took the initiative themselves and what pushed them to strike.

Miners of the Donetsk region stopped work yesterday, starting an all-out strike in protest against the Ukrainian army’s continuing offensive and demanding an end to the “anti-terrorist operation” (ATO) in the region; several pits in the Donbas are taking part already and the strikes appears to be spreading to more mines. Meanwhile, spokesmen of the Kiev government and Ukrainian armed forces threaten escalation of the crackdown, with ATO press-secretary Alexei Dmitrashkovsky statingthat the operation will continue “until

May 26 was the bloodiest day so far in Kiev’s “anti-terrorist” operation where Ukrainian forces used fighter jets and helicopter gunships to fight off rebels who had taken over the airport in Donetsk. This is the clear message the new president Poroshenko is sending to the Peoples’ Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The events that led to the holding of the latest Ukrainian presidential election started with a demand for EU-integration. So it is fitting that the election with the lowest participation (estimated at around 55% by the Ukrainian Electoral Commission) in Ukraine’s history was held on the same day as the EU elections, which had an even lower participation of 43%. The first round was won outright by oligarch Petro Poroshenko, scoring 54% with 80% of the votes counted. Yulia Tymoshenko was runner-up at a distant 13%, while fellow populist Oleh Lyashko took just over 8%.

We republish here the first statement of the left wing organisation Union of Borotba (Struggle) on Ukraine’s “elections of blood"

On May 20th, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest man and oligarch boss of the South East of the country had called for a mass mobilisation against the Donetsk Peoples’ Republic and for a united Ukraine.

We publish this article by Borotba leader Sergei Kirichuk which deals with the attacks against the Communist Party of Ukraine and calls for broad solidarity with all those suffering repression and right wing attacks.

Sergei Kirichuk is a leading member of the Ukrainian socialist movement "Borotba" (Struggle) For many years he fought against the oligarchic regime of Viktor Yanukovych. But today Kirichuk and his comrades are organizing resistance to the new authorities. In response to these they have been targeted by right-wing terror and police repression. Kiev propagandists have described Kirichuk as one of the leaders of the "separatists", and extreme right wing Ukranian nationalists have included ​​his name in the list of "enemies of the Ukrainian nation."

Yesterday, May 20 a paramilitary gang of armed fascists attempted to kidnap a number of Borotba activists in broad day light at the end of a protest against the Kiev authorities in Freedom Square, in the centre of Kharkov. The attack was repelled by the protesters and by passers by who were faced with the passivity or complicity of uniformed police present. (see Borotba statement here)

The holding of the referendums in eastern Ukraine represents a new and potentially dangerous twist in the Ukrainian crisis. The representatives of the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions say 89% and 96% respectively voted in favour of self-rule.

Two days from the May 11 referendum in Donetsk and Luhansk, the Kiev authorities, unable to crush the uprising in the Donbas, are stepping up the war hysteria, curtailing democratic rights and incorporating fascist paramilitaries into the state apparatus. Meanwhile there are signs of growing working class activity in the areas under the control of the rebels.

In a rare moment of candour, yesterday, Ukraine's acting President Turchynov admitted that his forces were "helpless" to quell the unrest in Eastern Ukraine, as the pro-Russian insurgency is on the rise. Furthermore he admitted that the Ukrainian security forces were not reliable and “some of these units either aid or co-operate with terrorist groups.” Now the goal would be to prevent the pro-Russian insurgency from spreading in the Kharkiv and Odessa regions. This amounts to a declaration of defeat.