Finland–Punalippu: Vance Requests Ukraine to Stop Attacks in the Black Sea Due to Oil Prices
Featured image: Grain terminals in Novorussiysk have suspended operations due to attacks. Source: New Voice of Ukraine
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Punalippu on August 15.
The United States in Trouble: Vance Asks Ukraine to Stop Attacks in the Black Sea Due to Oil Prices
The United States Vice President J.D. Vance requested, on July 31, Ukraine to limit its attacks on the Port of Novorussiysk, because they have disturbed the oil shipments by the US tankers from Kazakhstan. The concern of the US is especially the still rising oil prices, as a result of its failed war against Iran.
Ukraine has reportedly agreed to the request, for the purpose to obtain the license promised by the US to produce Patriot air defense missiles. Russia continues to carry out genocidal bombings against Ukraine’s civilian population using ballistic missiles in an effort to crush the people’s will to fight. The effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defense has sharply declined. With the license it could produce its own cheaper missiles with the same technology. Trump promised the license at the Ankara NATO summit, but on July 20, for example, he stated that the US must be careful about whom it grants the license to. According to Zelensky, however, the matter has already been agreed upon.
Ukraine announced that it would stop attacks on the Caspian oil pipeline and tankers in its vicinity, specifying that it would only spare non-Russian vessels that are not carrying products subject to sanctions imposed by Ukraine–Russian oil or Russian products.
Ukraine has, however, continued carrying out attacks on other parts of the port of Novorossiysk. On August 12, it launched a devastating attack against the Russian navy using drones and missiles, hitting, according to the Ukrainian military, five frigates as well as grain terminals, disrupting Russian grain exports. All three of the port’s grain terminals have suspended operations. The operation involved the use of several Ukrainian-made missiles and drones: Palyanytsi, Barse, and Peklo, as well as Neptune missiles. According to Zelensky, the strikes targeted air defense positions, port infrastructure, and docks. He emphasized that neither the occupying force’s navy nor the infrastructure supporting it will be safe as long as Russia’s aggression continues. Even if the attacks are not directly targeting tankers, conditions for shipping and exports in Novorossiysk are therefore anything but calm. Ukraine has generally refused to stop its attacks on infrastructure, despite attempts by Turkey to mediate negotiations to limit attacks on shipping. It has also struck oil refineries in Russia once again, vowing revenge for last winter, when Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing great suffering to the Ukrainian people. On August 14, it struck again, targeting, among other sites, Novatek’s gas processing plant in Ust-Luga and the aviation and aerospace industry in Samara.
Vance’s request shows, in part, the problems of the US: just as with Russian imperialism in Ukraine, instead of a quick “special operation,” it has found itself getting deeper and deeper into quicksand in Iran, in a war for which, according to its own General Dan Caine, for example, there is no military solution. The military significance of the airstrikes is limited, but the United States does not dare to launch a ground invasion, as this would become increasingly costly for it. The Ukrainian government is demanding more US air defense missiles, but the US needs these for its military operations in Iran: according to some sources, the US has used two-thirds of its Patriot missiles, whose effectiveness against drones, for example, has proven to be limited.
Imperialists are forced to launch new aggressions against oppressed nations in an attempt to resolve their deep problems, but this only further exacerbates their problems. The instability of the entire imperialist system increases as the oppressed nations resist imperialist aggression, and as the imperialists strive to shift the cost of their aggression onto the masses through the rising living costs. At the same time, resistance wars led by such imperialist lackeys have their limitations, for in the modern era only the proletariat, under the leadership of its Communist Party, can fully apply the principle of relying on one’s own strength—a fact that is very clearly evident, for example, in the case of Ukraine. However, this does not negate the fact that the people of Ukraine have been fighting for nearly five years and continue their protracted and fierce struggle against the occupier, while objectively deepening the crisis of the entire imperialist system and further weakening it.
