Latest news with #UkraineSolidarityCampaign
Telegraph
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Cancel military aid to Ukraine, says transport union
The RMT transport union has called for Britain to stop giving military aid to Ukraine. A motion titled The Labour Movement Stands for Peace was submitted by the union's Paddington branch, urged Labour ministers to 'commit to work for a diplomatic, negotiated, lasting peace settlement'. Passed at the RMT's annual meeting last week in Manchester, it said: 'Despite the defeat of the Conservative government by the Labour Party at the 2024 general election, Britain continues to play a belligerent role in international relations by supplying British-made weapons, military support, credit and billions of pounds in public funding in trying and failing to achieve a military defeat for Russia in Ukraine. 'We reject the politics of lower living standards and cuts in living standards to fund a policy of unending and escalating war that last year took us to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.' The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign said news of the motion passing was 'very bad' and added on X: 'This is a union with an unusually strong Stop the War and particularly Communist Party of Britain influence in its leadership and apparatus. 'In the run-up to the AGM, we helped pro-Ukraine RMT members renew and extend contacts with rail workers in Ukraine.' A spokesman for the RMT said: 'The motion was calling for a de-escalation of war zones across the world from Gaza, Yemen and Iran as well as Ukraine. 'As many commentators from Left and Right have commented, pouring billions into the Ukraine war zone will not create the conditions for peace negotiations but simply make them harder to achieve. 'The RMT does not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine but pouring weapons into one side against the other is counterproductive to creating the conditions for a peaceful solution.' Posing with pro-Putin separatists Eddie Dempsey, who replaced Mike Lynch as general secretary earlier in 2025, has faced questions after posing with pro-Putin separatists in eastern Ukraine. Mr Dempsey visited eastern Ukraine in 2015, where he posed for a picture with Aleksey Mozgovoy, a commander in the 'Ghost Brigade' of pro-Russian separatists branded a terrorist organisation by Ukraine's supreme court. At the time, an RMT spokesman said: 'The union does not support either Vladimir Putin or his actions in Ukraine, and we are backing global union pressure for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.' Mr Dempsey said: 'I fully agree with the union's position.' Meanwhile, Mr Lynch was in 2024 accused of peddling Kremlin propaganda after he claimed the EU had provoked trouble in Ukraine before Russia's invasion. In an interview with the New Statesman, he said: 'There were a lot of corrupt politicians in Ukraine. And while they were doing that, there were an awful lot of people [in Ukraine] playing with Nazi imagery, and going back to the [Second World] War, and all that.'
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Hundreds of Ukraine supporters condemn Trump at US embassy protest
Hundreds of pro- Ukraine protesters gathered outside the US embassy in London on Wednesday shouting 'shame' and calling for the cancellation of President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK. The demonstration, which was organised by the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign and other Ukrainian organisations, saw around 200 people come together wearing Ukrainian flags and holding signs that read 'turncoat Trump. Now we must rejoin the EU', 'TrumPutin what an ugly cowardly team' and 'occupation is not peace. Justice for Ukraine'. One banner branded the US president a ' KGB agent' with the code name President Krasnov. Independent MP John McDonnell was the first to speak at the rally, calling on the UK government to 'act' and 'be firm and stand up to Trump and Vance'. He said: 'I was absolutely shocked and angered at the way President Zelensky was treated by Trump. 'We've never witnessed that before and to be treated in that way when you're in the middle of a war situation and to try and humiliate the president of Ukraine I think made us all very angry. 'But even angrier is Trump's decision to end aid virtually overnight and to put at risk so many lives as a result. 'What we're here to say to Americans and yes even to Trump directly (is) across the world people will not stand by and see a peace imposed by Putin and Trump and tears apart Ukraine but also robs them of their natural resources and puts so many people at risk again… We want peace just as much as anybody else. 'But it must be a peace that the Ukrainians themselves agree upon and it must be a peace the prevents this rip-off of the natural resources of Ukraine… We say to our own government and European leaders across Europe – stand firm. Don't be bullied by Trump. Stand firm for the principles we all believe in which is democracy and freedom.' The protest came after last week's confrontation between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky at the White House. The US president has since used a wide-ranging speech in Congress to say he had received a letter from the Ukrainian leader saying Kyiv is ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington 'at any time' after talks broke down last week. The Ukrainian president earlier said it is 'time to make things right' with Mr Trump after the fractious meeting in the Oval Office and the US decision to suspend military aid to Kyiv.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds of Ukraine supporters condemn Trump at US embassy protest
Hundreds of pro-Ukraine protesters gathered outside the US embassy in London on Wednesday shouting 'shame' and calling for the cancellation of President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK. The demonstration, which was organised by the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign and other Ukrainian organisations, saw around 200 people come together wearing Ukrainian flags and holding signs that read 'turncoat Trump. Now we must rejoin the EU', 'TrumPutin what an ugly cowardly team' and 'occupation is not peace. Justice for Ukraine'. One banner branded the US president a 'KGB agent' with the code name President Krasnov. Independent MP John McDonnell was the first to speak at the rally, calling on the UK government to 'act' and 'be firm and stand up to Trump and Vance'. He said: 'I was absolutely shocked and angered at the way President Zelensky was treated by Trump. 'We've never witnessed that before and to be treated in that way when you're in the middle of a war situation and to try and humiliate the president of Ukraine I think made us all very angry. 'But even angrier is Trump's decision to end aid virtually overnight and to put at risk so many lives as a result. 'What we're here to say to Americans and yes even to Trump directly (is) across the world people will not stand by and see a peace imposed by Putin and Trump and tears apart Ukraine but also robs them of their natural resources and puts so many people at risk again… We want peace just as much as anybody else. 'But it must be a peace that the Ukrainians themselves agree upon and it must be a peace the prevents this rip-off of the natural resources of Ukraine… We say to our own government and European leaders across Europe – stand firm. Don't be bullied by Trump. Stand firm for the principles we all believe in which is democracy and freedom.' The protest came after last week's confrontation between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky at the White House. The US president has since used a wide-ranging speech in Congress to say he had received a letter from the Ukrainian leader saying Kyiv is ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington 'at any time' after talks broke down last week. The Ukrainian president earlier said it is 'time to make things right' with Mr Trump after the fractious meeting in the Oval Office and the US decision to suspend military aid to Kyiv.
