The UK’s decision to give military assistance to Ukraine has drawn criticism from Jeremy Corbyn, who claims that the West is “prolonging and exacerbating” Russia’s conflict.
The former Labour leader, who made headlines for his refusal to pin the Salisbury poisoning on Russia in 2018, advocated for forcing a peace agreement between the two and appealing to the African Union and Arab League, including Syria, for mediation.
In an interview with a pro-Assad TV program, he also lamented the fact that “Ukrainians are dying… and Russian soldiers are dying,” while criticizing NATO expansion for adding “more pressure and greater stress.”
A recent poll showed 61 per cent of Ukrainians are against ending the war until all territory occupied by Russia, including Crimea, is back under their control.
There is also a broad consensus between experts and analysts that striking a deal now would favour Moscow, allowing Putin to ‘freeze’ the war while rearming and reinforcing before restarting it at a time of his choosing – as he did in 2014.
But speaking to Al Mayadeen, a pro-Assad TV station based in Lebanon – which is controlled by Iran-backed proxy group Hezbollah – Corbyn argued the opposite.
He said: ‘What I find disappointing is that hardly any of the world’s leaders use the word “peace”, they always use the language of more war and more bellicose war
‘Ukrainians are dying and Ukrainians have gone into exile, thousands and thousands of them. And Russian soldiers are dying, conscripted young Russian soldiers are dying… Therefore there has to be more, much more, effort put into peace.’
Corbyn did say he ‘disagrees’ with the Russian invasion, but then parroted a Kremlin talking-point by adding that arming Ukraine will ‘prolong and exaggerate’ the war.
Meanwhile, he praised UN chief Antonio Guterres for travelling to Moscow to meet with Putin, insisting the global body should be at the forefront of negotiating peace.
If the UN cannot help, Corbyn suggested, then the African Union or Arab League – which includes Syria – should mediate because they ‘have no direct economic interest one way or the other’.
In fact, Russia has arms-dealing agreements with dozens of African nations from whom it also imports natural resources.
Moscow also has troops and paramilitaries stationed across the Middle East.
Corbyn said that the end of the conflict would also allow Russian gas to resume entering Europe, saying that Germany “cannot exist” without it.
Former defense minister and chairman of the defense select committee Tobias Ellwood told The Telegraph that Corbyn was “once again demonstrating why he would have been such an unfit prime leader for the UK.”
He is unaware of the geopolitical repercussions of occasionally employing force to support democracy.
“This is really careless behavior for a top politician.” I really hope that his remarks do not be seen as undermining the broader support for and commitment to aiding Ukraine in the wake of Putin’s illegal invasion.
Because Corbyn believed that anti-Semitism in the party had been exaggerated for political purposes, Labour withdrew the whip from him, and he now serves as an independent MP in parliament.
He was expelled from the party as well, but the membership later decided to have him back.
Journalists and executives from Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya, some of whom were offended by their criticism of Syria’s leaders, founded Al Mayadeen in 2012.
It has been charged of receiving funding from the dictator Assad’s administration since its head of news at the time was married to a PR advisor for the dictator, who was also a close ally of Russia.
The station has also been charged with receiving assistance from Iran, however it has refuted all claims to this effect. Former visitors have included people like George Galloway.
One of the biggest military donors to Ukraine has been Britain, which volunteered to send anti-tank rockets even before Putin gave the order for the invasion.
In the early stages of the conflict, tank and vehicle convoys that were en route to the capital were destroyed by the weapons, according to Kyiv.
Along with anti-air defenses to shield Ukrainian cities from Russian planes and cruise missiles, anti-ship rockets to patrol the coast, and long-range rocket artillery to destroy ammunition depots and command centers, Britain has also contributed significantly to these efforts.
With its major attack essentially halted, Russia has already been at war in Ukraine for five months when it was only meant to last a few days.
Targeting the southern city of Kherson, the soldiers of Kiev are now attempting to reverse some of the territorial gains that Putin’s forces have won since late February.
President Zelensky has admitted that a peace agreement is ultimately necessary, but he also maintains that it will be up to the Ukrainian people to decide when and how the conflict will end.
‘We have no right to do this… this land belongs to Ukrainian people,’ he said in a recent interview.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently stated that peace would “be on our terms” without specifying what that meant.
Prior to the conflict, Moscow had demanded that Ukraine consent to never joining NATO, lose land in its eastern Donbas, and that the alliance withdraw all of its soldiers from former Soviet republics. These demands had been flatly rejected by allies and the US.