I have received a lot of emails from concerned people in Islington North who are observing this horrific situation as it unfolds.
Russia’s shocking invasion of Ukraine is causing fear, misery, and death. This is a terrible war that is going on and I continue to appeal to everyone to do everything they can to try to stop the war. Russia must withdraw its troops and return to diplomacy.
We must remain steadfast in working for long term security arrangements for the whole region, based on the original Budapest memorandum on Security Assurances signed at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) conference in 1994; and the Minsk-2 Agreement that came out of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine conference in 2014.
In 2008 I asserted that Putin was rigging elections. Then in 2010 I called for a freeze of his assets, followed in 2012 by a call for a Magnitsky Act. In the same year (2012) I called for the Russian Arms Corps to be banned, and in 2016 I asserted that Putin was guilty of war crimes in Syria. I continued in this vein in the years since.
All wars end in a political solution, not a military one, and this crisis needs a ceasefire and dialogue, not more war, otherwise there will be more suffering, more bloodshed and many more Ukrainians (and Russians) would die.
A war with Russia would not bring about peace, it would lengthen and widen the crisis, nobody will win, and it would run the very deal danger of turning nuclear, which would be too terrible to even contemplate.
We are currently seeing huge numbers of refugees leaving their homeland in search of safety and we must do everything possible to ensure their safety.
I will remain engaged in whatever way I can for as long as this dreadful situation remains, and for more on my position please see here: https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2022/february/28/jeremy-corbyn-on-putin-and-ukraine?fbclid=IwAR2dOdj-CWN3HkPJIo4aXHxjfuyUODt6kbye4TJbNJqwmVZ_6f-0dYnCtnY
