Veterans For Peace Ukraine
Working Group
The Veterans For Peace Ukraine Working Group (in formation) seeks to promote a just, moral, and legal resolution to Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine by:
- Amplifying progressive Ukrainian-centric perspectives on the war.
- Providing material aid to the victims of the war.
- Promoting a progressive post-war reconstruction without austerity measures.
- Advocating for a secure and peaceful post-war coexistence between all parties involved.
- Acknowledging that “Russia out of Ukraine” is the most direct route to peace.
Note that this working group, in formation, originally organized as “Veterans For Peace For Ukraine,” and then later as the “Veterans For Peace For Ukraine caucus.” We have updated our name and graphics at the request of the VFP National Board.
Webinars
Recorded May 3rd, 2023
“Ukraine: 2014, Today, What Next?”
Dr. Oksana Dudko, historian, Center for Urban History (Lviv, Ukraine)
John Spitzberg, VFP, brief report back from Odessa, Ukraine
Sasha Kanster, webinar moderator, Feminist Workshop (Lviv, Ukraine)
Hosted by Jeff Paterson & Jeremiah Knowles, VFP National Board Members
Recorded April 14th, 2023
“War, Resistance & Ukraine’s Future”
Alona Liasheva, co-editor of Commons Journal (Lviv/Kyiv, Ukraine)
Karyna Lazaruk, communications researcher (Lviv, Ukraine/Berlin, Germany)
Yosh, director of Feminist Workshop (Lviv, Ukraine), moderator
Hosted by: Jeff Paterson and Jeremiah Knowles, VFP National Board Members
Please note that the recording contains wording and graphics referring to “Veterans For Peace For Ukraine”. Upon request of the VFP National Board, we are now the Veterans For Peace Ukraine working group, in formation.
Recorded March 24, 2023
“Can Russia’s invasion of Ukraine be rationalized, or even justified, by western expansionism?”
Yosh, Feminist Workshop (Lviv, Ukraine)
Vladyslav Starodubtsev, Sotsyalnyi Rukh (“Social Movement”) (Kyiv, Ukraine)
Prof. Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco
Hosted by Veterans For Peace members Jeff Paterson and Steph Atkinson.
Donations made to Women4Women ( Жінка для Жінки, Kyiv ) and the Feminist Workshop (Lviv) on behalf of Veterans For Peace.
“Veterans For Peace (VFP) unequivocally condemns Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine…. Veterans For Peace maintains that the people of Ukraine have the right to self determination and to lead their own struggle for national liberation… War resisters from every nation deserve support and safe refuge.”
– Veterans For Peace Statement: On Ukraine, 21 June 2022.
Veterans For Peace members welcome wounded Ukrainian soldiers arriving in the United States for medial treatment, Minneapolis MN, March 10, 2023.
Action & Statements
Donations: Ukrainian Feminist Collectives
Appeal by the Feminist Collective of the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine The war in Ukraine is a highly gendered...
Donations: Protez Foundation, Prosthetics for Ukrainians
The goal of the project is to help Ukrainian children, soldiers and civilians who have lost their limbs during the war to get...
Donations: Razom – Emergency Response Network & Projects
Razom, which means “together”, believes in the potential of dedicated volunteers around the world united by a single goal: to unlock the potential of Ukraine.
Oppose Western Militarism
by Veterans For Peace For Ukraine Working Group Veterans For Peace opposes western militarism and increased US military...
Diplomacy Not War!
by the Veterans For Peace For Ukraine Working Group All parties to the Russia-Ukraine War should commit to genuine diplomacy...
Anti-War Art Action
Ukraine Solidarity; Stop the War Mural by David Solnit San Francisco, CA - Today in solidarity with people of Ukraine a...
Analysis
Veterans For Peace: Ukraine Peace Solidarity
"Can Russia’s invasion of Ukraine be rationalized, or even justified, by western expansionism?" Featuring: Yosh, Director of...
European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine
Stop the bombing! Russian troops out! Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance! Progressive and leftist voices for peace in...
Why Binary Thinking on Russia’s Invasion Is a Losing Strategy
by Khury Petersen-Smith at Yes! Magazine. The people of Ukraine are fleeing, suffering, and resisting in the face of an...
Putin’s Mein Kampf: An Invasion Foretold
by Greg Palast at Portside. How can too many of my fellow progressives, who marched against Bush’s “preemptive” war in Iraq,...
A Ukrainian Socialist Lays Out the Aims and Struggles of Her Country’s Left
by Ashley Smith at Truthout. Leftists in Ukraine are simultaneously resisting Russian imperialism and the domestic imposition...
“The right to resist.” A feminist manifesto
by The Feministic Initiative Group (Ukraine). We, feminists from Ukraine, call on feminists around the world to stand in...
Russia Out of Ukraine
In order to bring about a genuine and lasting peace as soon as possible, we call on the Russian Federation to unconditionally leave the internationally recognized borders of the sovereign nation of Ukraine, a founding member of the United Nations since 1945.
We join the 144 Member States of the United Nations that reiterated the demand that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine and called for a cessation of hostilities” during the UN’s 11th emergency special session, 23 Feb 2023. Veterans For Peace holds a permanent Non-Governmental Organization seat at the United Nations.
Following the exit of Russian forces from Ukraine, we hope for a process of restorative justice and restitution for the untold suffering of tens of millions of Ukrainians as a step towards a lasting peace.
A progressive reconstruction plan will be needed to rebuild Ukraine, one free of neoliberal austerity requirements imposed on the people of Ukraine.
The “Missing Peace Slogan”
VFP has opposed US imperialism since our organization’s founding in 1986, and today in our self-defined role as a global military veterans organization, we are called upon to oppose Russian imperialism, if for moral consistency alone.
We encourage all anti-war and peace organizations to include the slogan “Russia Out of Ukraine,” or similar formulation, when advocating for an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. We believe it is morally insufficient to assume or presume that desired action when declaring “Peace in Ukraine” as an abstract idea. Otherwise, we are concerned that peace advocacy may be reasonably viewed as beneficial to, or even in the service of, Russia’s war effort.
-Veterans For Peace Ukraine Working Group
Contact Us
Veterans For Peace
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
Statement of Purpose
We, as military veterans, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others both nationally and internationally
- To increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war
- To restrain our governments from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
- To resist racism and repression in our home communities
- To oppose the militarization of law enforcement
- To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
- To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
- To abolish war as an instrument of national policy
To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.