The US-Iran agreement, which, at least for the time being, eases the crisis in the Middle East, has brought the war in Ukraine back to the forefront of discussions among G7 leaders at the mid-June summit in Evian. With Zelensky in attendance, support for Ukraine was reaffirmed, and the possibility of reimposing sanctions on Russian oil was assessed. The optimistic outlook regarding the durability of the agreements with Iran, would allow Middle Eastern oil to flow through the Strait of Hormuz, which would thus make it possible to resume targeting Russia.

The war follows the same script that took hold during the Trump presidency: while there is public talk of negotiating with Moscow to halt the conflict—with Trump declaring at the G7 that ”Russia must make a deal”—the fighting continues on. The costs have been offloaded onto the Europeans, and Ukrainians serve as cannon fodder, all while Americans profit from arms sales for Ukraine and position themselves to carve up the Ukrainian spoils alongside the Russians once the need to end the conflict arises.

There are no fatherlands to be liberated from imperialist aggression—contrary to the narrative of Kyiv’s supporters—nor are there anti-fascist struggles, as claimed by pro-Russian campists; the war in Ukraine is an imperialist conflict over the partitioning and control of territories and resources, for the defining of spheres of influence.

After all, involvement in the war in Ukraine, now dragging on for over four years, entails high costs, and only a division of the spoils of war can guarantee a profitable economic return for the brigands involved.

The Figures on Support for Ukraine

According to data from the Kiel Institute, which has been tracking and updating statistics on support for Ukraine since February 2022, the United States has provided €115 billion in aid to the country. This assistance has been primarily military in nature, amounting to nearly €65 billion. The US ranks first among Ukraine’s supporters in the delivery of missile launch systems (HIMARS), howitzers worth nearly a billion euros, and infantry fighting vehicles (Bradleys); however, it ranks second to Germany in air defense systems and fifth in the supply of tanks—an area where Poland’s contribution is by far the largest, and where the US also trails the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany.

American support however, came to a halt with the arrival of Trump. Between January and February 2025, less than half a billion in aid was recorded, before dropping to zero in the following months.

As a result, the data for 2025 shows a 99% collapse in US aid, offset in large part by increased allocations from European countries. Despite the absence of American support, these contributions limited the decline in total military aid to just 13%, and financial and humanitarian aid to only 5%, relative to the annual average for the 2022–2024 period. However, this required a significant increase from Europe: a full 67% rise in military aid and a 59% increase in financial and humanitarian aid compared to the 2022–2024 averages.

The European Union is the primary provider of financial and humanitarian aid, with its share rising from 50% in 2022 to nearly 90% in 2025, a shift that entails a redistribution among member states based on their share of GDP. The €90 billion loan agreed upon within the EU framework is part of this context.

Military aid, on the other hand, depends on the commitment of individual European countries, demonstrating a clear divide between Northern and Western European states, who have provided fully 95% of military aid, and those in Southern and Eastern Europe, where such aid has actually diminished.

Data for 2025 clearly show that the cost of the war has been shifted entirely by the Americans onto the shoulders of the Europeans. Moreover, the United States is also profiting from military contracts paid for by Europeans to supply weapons to Ukraine, specifically through the so-called PURL, a NATO-adopted mechanism under which Ukraine’s supporters purchased arms from the US totaling €3.7 billion in 2025.

Data from the first few months of 2026 confirm the American withdrawal and show a high level of military support for Ukraine from European countries. On average, between January and April 2026, European states allocated approximately €2 billion per month in military aid—lower than the 2025 average of €2.4 billion, but significantly higher than levels seen between 2022 and 2024. Between March and April 2026 alone, Germany allocated €4.2 billion in military aid, primarily for air defense and drones.

The first few months of 2026 are characterized by an increase in military aid related to drones, which rose from 400 million euros in 2022 to 1 billion euros in 2024 and 1.2 billion euros in 2025, reaching approximately 1.6 billion euros in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

Overall, Europeans have invested nearly 215 billion in the war in Ukraine so far!

Germany, in particular, is among the imperialist powers that have openly taken a warmongering turn. The war in Ukraine has led to a shift in the attitude of German imperialism. From the very beginning, we identified one of the characteristics of the imperialist war in Ukraine as being a war against Europe and, in particular, against Germany, which has suffered the severing of its energy ties with Russia—from which its industry had drawn its strength. With the skyrocketing rise in energy prices, German industry has fallen into crisis. Consequently, the German bourgeoisie’s way out is the conversion of its industry toward war production — essentially, tanks instead of cars.

Germany’s rearmament is also accompanied by a revision of its military strategy, which identifies Russia as the main threat. The goal is to develop the largest army in Europe, aiming to increase the current strength of 185,000 to at least 460,000 by 2035—comprising 260,000 active-duty soldiers and 200,000 reservists—making a new shift in the current volunteer-based military service system inevitable, moving toward the introduction of mandatory military service.

German imperialism, however, needs time to fine-tune its war machine, so it keeps the war in Ukraine going through substantial funding to Kyiv—to the point that Germany is now the world’s leading provider of aid to Ukraine.

These figures, taken from bourgeois statistics, clearly illustrate—from a communist and revolutionary perspective—the imperialist nature of the war, with European and American bandits, spending hundreds of billions, having no qualms about fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian—with the difference that while American imperialism is already profiting from military contracts and Europe’s energy dependence—as Europe is forced to buy expensive American gas—and can agree to strike a deal with Russia to divide up what remains of Ukraine, the Europeans are forced to see the fight against Russia through to the end in order to recoup the “investment” of their support for Ukraine.

Russia’s War

The billions from Western bourgeoisies that flooded into Ukraine to support its war effort were not the only weapon used against Russia; alongside the war on the ground, an economic war was waged—one consisting of sanctions—that was intended to bring the Russian economy to its knees. Although weakened, the Russian economy has not collapsed, having found buyers for its energy resources in the East—China, above all. In this way, the bond has been strengthened between Russia and China, and given that Russia’s ability to continue the war in Ukraine is closely tied to its hydrocarbon exports, it is precisely because of its energy ties with China that it can continue the war. China has, in fact, supported Russia’s war effort.

In the West, politicians and hacks, in their anti-Russian crusade, go out of their way to produce analyses designed to emphasize how the war in Ukraine has made Moscow dependent on Beijing. In fact, both sides derive mutual benefits from their relationship: on the one hand, China is now Russia’s main trading partner, accounting for about 35% of its foreign trade, and serving as a market for the hydrocarbons that previously flowed westward; on the other hand, China obtains energy at discounted prices, reducing its dependence on riskier supply sources, as recent events in the Middle East have demonstrated.

These two imperialist brigands are driven to march together against the imperialist powers of the West, not because of the bogus theories of those who dream of “multipolar worlds,” but because they need each other—first and foremost from an economic standpoint, and secondarily due to the course of the global imperialist struggle, with Russia engaged in a war on its western front and China surrounded by hostile powers aligned with American imperialism to the east. But these are precisely imperialist bandits, willing to make deals among themselves to confront their common enemies, yet each still thinking only of their own share of the spoils. The recent meeting between Putin and Xi in China is proof of this. More than twenty economic agreements were signed in May, but the one regarding the “Power of Siberia 2” gas pipeline is missing from the list, with China stalling and haggling over gas supply prices.

In addition to its economic difficulties, Russia must also contend with challenges related to the progress of its military operations. The widespread use of drones on the front lines prevents the concentration of troops and equipment, making the Russian advance extremely slow, difficult, and bloody. But, albeit slowly, the Russian army continues to advance in the Donbas, where the urban battle for Kostyantynivka is turning in its favor.

What continues, then, is that war of attrition that requires large numbers of cannon fodder on both sides of the front.

Ukraine, however, is also using drones to launch deep strikes into Russian territory—now extending more than 1,000 kilometers—and is successfully targeting economically significant objectives, such as industrial and energy facilities. Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory are thus causing damage both to the military-industrial complex—thereby undermining Russia’s war effort—and to its economy, by inflicting damage on the energy sector. The success of these attacks is driven by the involvement of NATO countries, with European nations now directly participating in drone production at European industrial facilities—which are, for the time being, safe from Russian attacks—where the drones used by Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory are manufactured.

Essential to these deep-strike operations is the logistical and cyber support that the intelligence agencies of European nations now provide unreservedly to the Ukrainian military—support without which these precise and deadly strikes could not possibly take place. It is clear that Russia is at war—first and foremost with the European powers, rather than with Ukraine.

The widespread use of drones and missiles is the European bourgeoisie’s solution for derailing any potential agreements and keeping the war going, while avoiding direct involvement in the conflict. But this situation is now being tolerated less and less in Moscow and is leading to disagreements over what is seen as the current Russian political leadership’s overly lenient stance. There is open talk of “red lines” having been crossed, calls for direct attacks against European countries, and even the use of nuclear weapons.

Every imperialist power has its “hawks.” At the moment, the major imperialist powers are still primarily focused on preparing as best they can for a major war—by bolstering their military capabilities, seizing strategic chokepoints, and gaining control over energy flows. But the path is set; the old order no longer reflects the balance of power between mature and emerging imperialist powers, leading to a global struggle that is marching toward the inevitable outbreak of a general war—the only way capitalism, having reached its imperialist phase, can bring about a new division of the world market.

Our Internationalism

Faced with the ongoing wars and the prospect of their escalation into a general war, the world proletariat—in order to avoid ending up as cannon fodder in imperialist wars—must reject all bourgeois leadership and control, while at the same time, and above all, exposing those “slogans” coming from falsely proletarian and communist organizations which, regardless of the level of consciousness of those who put them forward, end up aligning the proletariat with its own bourgeoisie, serving as a formidable tool for suppressing any attempt at political independence by the proletariat vis-à-vis the enemy class.

All the “slogans” regarding the war in Ukraine—other than those calling for fraternization at the front and the transformation of the war between states into a war between classes—fit perfectly within a framework of national defense, whose sole purpose is to subjugate the proletariat to the will of its own bourgeoisie, dragging them into a war to defend purely capitalist interests.

Slogans such as “defending Ukraine against Russian imperialist aggression” or “fighting fascism in Kyiv”—touted by fake communist organizations—may appear to be contradictory, but from the standpoint of revolutionary Marxism, they are cut from the same opportunist cloth. This is bourgeois politics being introduced into the proletarian camp; it is the enemy of the communist revolution and, therefore, a pillar of capitalist rule.

Today’s true internationalists have nothing to add or revise regarding the struggles of over a century ago, when—during the First World War—while the Social Democratic leaders had betrayed the working class by siding with their own bourgeoisie, the internationalists of that time cried out, “The enemy is in our own house!” A clear example of what the position of internationalists must be regarding war—and, in particular, regarding slogans such as the “defense of the fatherland,” a tool always present in the toolbox of the opportunist who sides with his own bourgeoisie—can be found in Lenin’s “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”:

“An imperialist war does not cease to be imperialist when charlatans or phrase-mongers or petty-bourgeois philistines put forward sentimental “slogans”, but only when the class which is conducting the imperialist war, and is bound to it by millions of economic threads (and even ropes), is really overthrown and is replaced at the helm of state by the really revolutionary class, the proletariat. There is no other way of getting out of an imperialist war, as also out of an imperialist predatory peace.”