Index

I. Preface
II. Major Music Industries and US/NATO Propaganda
III. Minor Music Industries and the K41 Community Fund
IV. Propagandistic Representations of the K41 Community Fund in the Western Press
V. Three Key Reasons the US and NATO Want War in Ukraine
VI. Historical Context and the US/NATO Role in Setting Up Ukraine for Invasion by Russia
VII. Abuses From All Sides Necessitate Questioning and Pacifist Action
VIII. Closing Thoughts

"The K41 Community Fund helps with purchasing armor, equipment and ammunition for individuals and battalions."
(K41 Community Fund website)

I. Preface
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A large part of my queer practice (I use the term 'queer' with the proviso that it has lost much of its critical use value for me, amidst its total cooptation by dominant institutional rhetoric and agendas) involves looking critically at the social actions and cultural directions of my own countries of origin (US) and residence (Japan) - even when they are disturbingly vile. I consider a critical deconstruction of nationalism and patriotism vital to my own understanding of what it means to inhabit culturally minor positions that exist within-yet-in-conflict-with multiple cultural mainstreams. It is necessary for analyzing my own implication within systems of violence, both major and minor. And it is one of the first steps toward developing strategies for resistance, non-cooperation and divestments of power. All of this is done with the aim of cultivating social practices that reduce violence. Therefore, I am admittedly quick to become cautious towards those who fail to do likewise. For some their failure to do so stems from conscious and malicious deception, while for others it is simply an unconscious byproduct of ideological indoctrinations. And yet for others an immersion in nationalist identities can be a reaction to private or public experiences of persecution and other traumas. It could also be a combination of any of those factors. This in turn affects my capacity for solidarity with them, as well as the forms that solidarity might take amidst inevitable differences and disagreements.

1 Carpenter, Ted Galen, "America's Ukraine Hypocrisy: The extent of the Obama administration’s meddling in Ukraine’s politics was breathtaking," CATO Institute, August 6, 2017. 2 Gordon, April, "A New Eurasian Far Right Rising: Reflections on Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia," Freedom House, January 2020. 3 Anonymous, "Ukraine: More than 14,000 casualties to date but ‘actual numbers are likely considerably higher,'" UN News, September 9, 2022.

At the time I am writing this, anyone who diverges from US and NATO narratives around Russia's invasion of Ukraine (that it was sudden and unprovoked, and that the freedom and well being of Ukrainian people is the West's primary objective in supporting the war) is immediately branded a Russian asset, or "Putin puppet." In this text I will disagree strongly with those narratives based on historical facts which leave no question that Russia's actions are the desired result of deliberate, long-term US and NATO provocation; and the West's real objective is a prolonged decimation of both Ukrainian and Russian people for financial gain. However, my criticisms of the US and NATO should not be read as condoning Russia's actions. As I will show, it is simply undeniable that within these circumstances the worst bad faith actors have been the US and NATO, who have empowered and orchestrated¹ far-right Ukrainian nationalists² since 2014 for precisely this moment. The dominant Western narrative about this war starting through the whims of a Russian madman on February 24, 2022, is an affront to the more than fourteen thousand Ukrainians killed by their own compatriots³ during the preceding eight years of bombings in the Donbas region - deaths that were directly enabled by US and NATO political interference, and carried out with US and NATO weapons.

Any meaningful discussion of the current situation in Ukraine cannot restrict itself to "Ukraine vs. Russia." It must involve a broader international picture, and look critically at historical facts. Political analysis becomes impossible when those facts are concealed and denied by the manipulative language of liberal humanism - i.e. one dimensional "Support Ukraine!" nationalist flag emojis and a moral imperative to see this "fight for freedom" proceed unabated to the end, combined with targeted anti-Russia sentiments passed off as generic "war is bad!" anti-war outcry devoid of both historical-materialist grounding and a pacifist commitment to negotiation. Sadly, none of this rallying provides any actual momentum towards peace, nor actual resistance to the war (or any war). To the contrary, it ideologically facilitates this war's continuation by clouding our abilities to question or investigate how it began. This in turn prevents us from being able to interpret what is actually happening in the given moment. By ideologically mirroring pro-US and pro-NATO propaganda, many liberals who oppose the war are unwittingly giving their cultural endorsement to the US and NATO's use of Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia. This prolongs the murder and suffering of people from both Ukraine and Russia, as well as obfuscates possibilities for ending the war other than a forced collapse of one side or the other due to critical-mass devastation. A harsh reality is that the US and NATO could not care less if both Ukraine and Russia collapse. Nor do they care how this war affects people in the EU, UK and elsewhere by cutting off major energy and food supplies from Russia. Here in Japan, from which EU travel and cargo delivery were already nearly impossible due to COVID-19 related border closings, going along with anti-Russia embargos including the inability to fly through Russian airspace has only made things worse.

I apologize in advance for the prolific number of footnotes in this text, but given the difficulty of discussing many of these issues within the current political climate, I feel it is necessary to be more thorough than usual with providing references in order to keep things as grounded in facts as possible.

II. Major Music Industries and US/NATO Propaganda
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Music and political warfare have been used together in many different political contexts and cultures as a way to reach a targeted audience in order to deliver a specific political message. Political warfare as defined by Paul A. Smith is the "use of political means to compel an opponent to do one's will... commonly through the use of words, images and ideas."^I Music is useful because it creates an easily recognizable and memorable method of delivery for the desired message. Music is particularly useful medium for the delivery of propaganda. Jacques Ellul stated that for propaganda to be effective it must "fill the citizen's whole day and every day."^II Since music is often viewed to be a leisure activity, it is often not considered to be as threatening as other propaganda techniques, and as a result messages can often be surreptitiously communicated without being conspicuously noticed.⁴
(Anonymous, "Music and Political Warfare.")

On February 27, 2022, the first weekend after the invasion, the long-running US sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" replaced their usual opening jokes with a cold open featuring the children of Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York singing "Prayer for Ukraine," a nationalist hymn dating back to 1885. The song selection made it clear that in a time of nationalist fervor there is no room for separation of church and state, nor doubt about whose side God is on.

Then around March 8, 2022, a video went viral of seven-year-old Amelia Anisovych singing the Disney song "Let It Go" in a Ukrainian bomb shelter. As a result, on March 20 she was brought before a crowd of thousands to sing the Ukrainian national anthem at a fundraiser for Polish Humanitarian Action. Of course, all of this came with the expected rhetoric of the West being the place where a child's musical dreams can come true.

Then on April 3, 2022, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a video address at the 64th Grammy Awards. His speech set a new standard in shamelessly equating "musical expression" with "freedom." "The war," he asked, "What is more opposite to music?" I found it ironic that a politician so beholden to fascists - both of the nationalist type within his country⁵ and the corporatist type in the West⁶ - would completely side-step the historical links between militarism, fascism and Futurism. After all, it was the official art, music and aesthetic of fascist Italy, providing a key framework for most European music over the last century, including Pop and Dance. In fact, Point 9 of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's "The Futurist Manifesto" literally states, "We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world." Then again, Zelensky was simply reading a script by a Grammy Award show writer, for a US audience culturally conditioned to only think of audio production in terms of spiritual vibes, personal affect and humanist universalism.

The image of children remained front and center as he continued, "Our children draw swooping rockets, not shooting stars." It goes without saying that this was only in reference to Russian rockets, and not in any way referencing the past eight years of bombings in the Donbas where the Ukrainian military has admittedly used schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.⁷ For sure, it was not a reference to those Ukrainian children. Zelensky concluded, "To all our cities the war is destroying - Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Volnovakha, Mariupol and others - they are legends already. But I have a dream of them living, and free - free like you on the Grammy stage." Then, in a moment of legendary poetic scripting likely lost on most, John Legend appeared - like a hat on a hat - on that very Grammy stage filled with waving flags, singing a lyrically faith-based song titled, "Freedom." Such a crafted segue, from the word play around "legend" and "freedom" to conjuring Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech for the introduction of an African-American singer who we are to infer has already overcome the types of hardships Ukrainians now face, is the proof that Zelensky's speech was not a personal message, but propaganda crafted for the US market. It will surely remain the most overproduced introduction Legend will ever experience. Like the fallacy of the US overcoming racism, the fallacy of music as a vehicle for freedom simply serves as a distraction from the actual pro-war power dynamics being deployed by the music industry that evening.

Needless to say, the music industry is not alone. We are constantly bombarded on all media fronts with outrageously orchestrated "inspirational" scenes so convoluted that they boggle the mind. My favorite has to be when liberal Jewish US comedian Jon Stewart honored Neo-Nazi Ukrainian Azov Batallion veteran Ihor Halushka with a "Heart of the Team" award at the annual Pentagon-sponsored Warrior Games held at Disney World this past August.⁸ At least Halushka was courteous enough to cover his Nazi Sonnenrad elbow tattoo with a red band during the ceremony. Or perhaps it was less courtesy, and more prepping by the Disney legal team after his actions in April, when he unveiled an Azov flag while accepting a gold medal during the Invictus Games at The Hague - sardonically, where war criminals are commonly tried.

It is worth noting that one of the only high profile musicians to speak critically against the US and NATO's role in Ukraine is Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters. For doing so, he was added to a website maintained by an anonymous group in Ukraine that compiles the names and addresses of people deemed enemies of Ukraine. Several people on the so-called "kill" list have been targeted by attacks, and some have in fact been killed.⁹

III. Minor Music Industries and the K41 Community Fund
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I cannot help feeling race is also an unspoken subtext to the unsettlingly disproportionate intensity of the West's reaction to this war primarily involving white people, in comparison to reactions to similar wars and coups being constantly enacted by the US in Middle Eastern and Latin American nations primarily inhabited by people of color. This was clear in the rush to Ukraine of white volunteer mercenaries and thrill seekers from North America and Europe, many of whom giddily spoke of killing Russians like they were Cold War era Soviets. Given the recognized role of Neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian military, as well as among Western white militarists, it is hard not to infer the passion of fascist brotherhood. Simultaneously, Ukraine sought to lure impoverished black men from Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Kenya and elsewhere into enlisting in the Ukrainian military under the promise that their families back home will be compensated if they are killed in action.¹² The contrast between these two mercenary recruitment groups makes visible an unsettling racial divide, with whites from North America and Europe exhibiting an almost childlike pro-war enthusiasm for the chance to participate in an existential fight for freedom, as compared to the exploitation of economic desperation among blacks from Africa. The crowd psychology demonstrated by the Western mainstream's boisterous embrace of US and NATO propaganda, when combined with issues of race and a knowing presence of active far right Neo-Nazism among allies, reveals that the picture of war presented to us by media is layered over an underpainting of fascist tendencies.

Beyond my normal concerns with charity compilations, as a US citizen operating within this propagandistic apex I felt doubly compelled to decline track requests for Ukraine charity compilations so as not to participate in public displays that - regardless of their intention - would inevitably function on the cultural level as not simply pro-Ukraine, but as part of that US and NATO propagandistic momentum to which I am opposed.

One such request was for the Concentric Records compilation, "CNTRC FOR UKRAINE," which was finally released on December 16, 2022. Although I did not contribute to the project, I became loosely involved doing translation between the label and my friend and collaborator Daisuke Tadokoro, who wished to contribute one of his own tracks. As a result, I received an official press release when the project finally came out. It said that donations would go to the K41 Community Fund, described as "a project initiated by the team of the Kyiv based cultural institution ∄ [the mathematical symbol for "nonexistent"] with the aim to provide financial, humanitarian and logistical support to the cultural community that has been facing life-threatening challenges since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

I did a quick search online for "K41 Community Fund" and was immediately surprised when the top search result displayed a link to the fund's official website with the following description: "The K41 Community Fund helps with purchasing armor, equipment and ammunition for individuals and battalions..." That is literally the key phrase used to describe the fund's website in search results, above all other activities. The same statement is also repeated within a text on the website itself.

Legally speaking, this involvement with weapons does fall under the military definition of providing "logistical support," but I wonder how many donors fathom this is how their donations are used? I believe most people would interpret "logistical support to the cultural community" as only referring to non-weaponry such as food, blankets, medicine, etc. I sure did. But then again, perhaps I was mistaken. I began reading every article I could find about the fund, but did not find a single mention of their involvement in weapons or military equipment anywhere. The only place it is mentioned is on their own website, which is admittedly very open about such things.

13 Anonymous, "An update from ∄ Community Fund: 20.12.2022," K41 Community Fund website, December 20, 2022.

An update from December 20, 2022, details that from recent donations totaling €23,461.49 (917,084 UAH), €11,379.84 went to purchasing 70 tablets for the 93rd separate mechanized brigade, €1,000.00 went to a medical battalion, €1,000.00 went to anti-aircraft missile troops, €1,000.00 went to purchasing small arms for a soldier of an assault group, €893.00 went toward a pickup truck for the 26th Separate Artillery Brigade, €893.00 went to purchase drones for "92 separate mechanized brigades" (sic. based on the description of the 93rd brigade above, perhaps they mean "92nd separate mechanized brigade"?), and €707.00 to the Main Directorate of Intelligence. That totals €16,872.84, or 72% of donations going directly for military ends. €5,470.00 were designated to charities, some of which may also be military support, such as €1,020.00 for a medical car. The update concludes, "Also, 12000 UAH were sent for supporting artists in need."¹³ That represents a mere 1.3% of the 917,084 UAH they received. While I commend the K41 Community Fund's transparency, these numbers clearly do not support claims that they are primarily for the financial support of Ukrainian artists (unless, like Futurists, we are to accept that military action is of benefit to artists - but that is clearly not in the spirit of the fund's appeals).

The K41 Community Fund emerged from a club in Kyiv called ∄, commonly referred to as K41 for ease of pronunciation. It is a techno club somewhat along the lines of Berghain in Berlin. They are typically represented as a queer-friendly venue and LGBT safe space. Their function as a cultural institution grew rapidly after Russia's invasion, when they began fundraising to provide financial and material support for their staff, members of the music scene who were suddenly left without income, and the community at large. In regard to the reasoning behind K41 Community Fund's involvement in weapons, I admittedly do not know enough. Unfortunately, what I have read on their website and in media coverage presents absolutely no political analysis beyond standard Western rhetoric, with zero historical framework or critical cultural insights on Ukraine. Similarly, everything I have read about them written by Western media is fully reconciled with US and NATO propaganda.

In regard to PR around humanitarian charities, none of this is surprising. However, such an outlook tilts more towards propagandistically "conscious" when it is combined with an open admission to procuring weapons. As this is typically not a part of most anti-war charity descriptions, my next thought becomes, "Why?" At the moment, I don't know why a community fund that is primarily represented as a humanitarian and cultural effort is involved in weapons deals, how much of their budget goes to such deals (although the December 22 website updates offered surprising insights), whether or not they monitor weapons use, or track resulting injuries and fatalities, etc. - all questions to which they may have very intelligible answers. For example, perhaps in this moment of war all charities in Ukraine are obligated by the nation to give a percentage of donations towards weaponry. I literally have no idea. Unfortunately, with no information from the K41 Community Fund or their media coverage offering any critical tools for analytical insight or dialogue around today's tragic circumstances (all of which is necessary for negotiating peace), all clues point to an either-you-get-it-or-you-don't dynamic of "brave people doing whatever has to be done." Within a Western context, this means any actual politics are overwritten and replaced by US and NATO agendas. Whether or not such an overwriting presents a dilemma to the members of the K41 Community Fund, I cannot say. But I am sure I am not alone when I say I would be disappointed if on some level it did not.

IV. Propagandistic Representations of the K41 Community Fund in the Western Press
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Western press coverage of K41 and their fund reads idyllic in the usual way that East European techno clubs are represented as idyllic. You know, the lone yet communally central LGBT safe space plunked amidst conservatism and tyranny, proof that Western cultural globalization is slowly winning the battle against communism and the former Soviet Union. It is very reminiscent of pre-pandemic Western press coverage of the club scene in Georgia (for US readers I mean the country, not the state). The coverage is so stylized and scripted that the reader is ensured to come away feeling like they understand everything without actually knowing anything: hard techno music and rebel love vibes and community and inferred political rebellion but no discussion of actual political agendas and OMG it's a drag queen in a homemade gown who's been there since the start and every article ends with the phrase "they are still dancing." So, yeah, after reading a ton of articles I feel like I still don't know anything - which is not the fault of K41. It is the fault of the music press and their narrowband coverage techniques.

For example, I was struck by the way an article in the mainstream music trade Billboard parrots other mainstream news media cries to keep the war going:

“Before the Russian invasion, I thought Europeans were very privileged,” a ∄ team member explains over a beer at ∄’s bar.

"Affordable health insurance and a high standard of living" are certainly things to be admired, she says, draining her beer and setting it resolutely on the bar counter. "But now I know that Ukrainians are the ones that are privileged."

When asked why, she stares me dead in the eye. In this war, “Ukrainians know that pacifism is not an option."¹⁴

14 Larson, Caleb, "Amidst The War, Kyiv's Leading Techno Club Reopens For One Night: 'The Crowd Today Is Different,'" Billboard.com, October 26, 2022. 15 Xu, Hailin, "US ready to 'fight to the last drop of Ukrainian, European blood': former UK MP," Global Times, March 17, 2022.

This kind of fatalistic commitment to warfare has a unique resonance here in Japan with its former Kamikaze suicide pilots. It is a cultural context that is perhaps part of the reason why Japanese people internationally rank among the most sympathetic to the plight of Ukrainians. As former UK parliamentarian George Galloway points out, this suicidal mentality is part of the desired message, saying the US "is ready to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood, in the end, it's prepared to fight to the last drop of European blood."¹⁵

From a propagandistic standpoint, the fact that Billboard dramatically framed the quote to read as purely heroic and brave, with not even a hint of critical response or follow-up to such a tragic statement, belies the publication's political stance. It is a clearly corporate stance aligned with US and NATO talking points, masqueraded as the pure-of-heart confession of a bar confidant. Such writing is malicious in its attempt to manipulate the reader into nodding along with the notion that the war must continue at all costs because "pacifism is not an option" - without ever defining what pacifism might actually look like on a strategic level of non-combative negotiation, and ensuring the term remains culturally more blurred and taboo than 'atheism.' It is malicious in the way it betrays the absence of any actual concern the author feigns for his subject as a human being - exploiting her trauma to emotional effect so that the reader internalizes horrific political agendas that literally conspire to exploit her trauma to fatal effect. This is a textbook example of how propaganda works in the mainstream media. It is neither about what she said nor the fact she said it. It is about the framework around the quote, and how that framework functions. (I should also note, as someone who has been interviewed by Billboard and other mainstream music rags, I know first hand that quotation marks are not proof she actually said that at all. However, considering all entries on the K41 website end with ultra-nationalist phrases like "Everything will be Ukraine!" and "Glory to Ukraine!" what they quoted her as saying seems on brand.)

16 Chambers, Fergie, "Exclusive: Ukrainian Refuseniks On Why Many Won’t Fight for Ukraine," Toward Freedom, April 12, 2022.

Meanwhile, military aged men from 18 to 60 are banned from leaving Ukraine. Conscientious objectors face social and legal ostracism along with imprisonment. As Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement (UPM) explains, “[There is] no exemption for conscientious objectors in Ukraine, even for clergy or religious organizations. [...] Our country has created an existential enemy, and now they say all people should unite around a nationality and a leader! The country has generally shifted far to the right. There are of course Neo-Nazis. But then many of these people are not perceived as ‘Neo-Nazis,’ but as ‘defenders of the country.’”¹⁶ Amidst the chaos, MTF transgendered people receive abuse from both directions because they are legally considered men and therefore not exempt from the martial law order, while at the same time prohibited from fighting in the military to which they are legally required to report. As a result, Sheliazhenko says, "there are some horrible stories about LGBT people being abused both on the borders - [treated as male traitors] attempting to leave - and [harassed for being trans] within the military here in Ukraine." All of this reframes the ∄ team member's assertion that, “Ukrainians know that pacifism is not an option," so that it could describe the tyranny of forced conscription as much as Billboard's promoted message of nationalist heroism.

V. Three Key Reasons the US and NATO Want War in Ukraine
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In a press conference, Minority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell described the bill as necessary to "ensure that the Defense Department can deal with the major threats coming from Russia and China. Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that's the number one priority for the United States right now." McConnell also bragged that they were able to write out social services for US citizens from the globalizing budgetary bill, so that it transfers "huge sums of money [...] toward our national defense and armed forces." (In regard to fiscal responsibility, it is worth remembering that in 2019 the Pentagon was unable to account for $21 trillion, has failed every audit of the past five years, and just this past month could not account for another $2 trillion.) At a time when Russia and China are not taking any military action towards the US, what does this kind of rhetoric mean? Why is the US so insistent upon its proxy war with Russia via Ukraine? The primary reason is unimaginatively simple: money. To be specific, laundering money back to the US military industrial complex to which the politicians are financially beholden, and also personally hold financial investments in. Ukraine's war with Russia facilitates this extensive money laundering in three ways:

1. NATO expansion. NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] was started in 1949 by a collective of Western nations to counter threats of East Block expansion by the Soviet Union. At the core of NATO is the agreement that all member nations will join in the military defense of any other member nation if attacked by the Soviet Union. As stated countless times by Noam Chomsky and others, NATO should have disbanded once the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991. However, it has continued, and over the decades the US and NATO have consistently acted in bad faith against Russia by pushing for the expansion of NATO membership and military presence in Central and Eastern Europe - expansion that NATO formally agreed not to pursue in 1990 contingent upon the reunification of Germany. The key reason for NATO's continuation and expansion rests in the fact that all member states must acquire and maintain a large supply of military equipment comparable to the other member states. It goes without saying that this equipment is primarily supplied by US military industries, generating enormous profits in the US. Therefore, in order to justify the continued need for NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US is economically committed to creating international instability and security threats - including encroaching upon Russian borders and inciting Russian response when possible. As such, the US demands not only NATO's continuation, but its expansion.

17 Dore, Jimmy, "Why Are Ukraine Weapons Going To Nigeria, Finland & Holland?!?," The Jimmy Dore Show, December 12, 2022.

Ukraine is the latest nation to be exploited in this manner, and is deliberately being used as bait by the US and NATO. When the US government approves money for Ukraine, the majority of it immediately goes to purchases from US weapons manufacturers who then send weapons overseas. Other funds are literally sent over as large palettes of cash, with no accounting of money or weapons required on the Ukrainian side. As a result, weapons sold on the black market have already been traced to Nigeria, Finland and Holland.¹⁷ With so many players involved in profiteering above and below board, it is a multinational financial engine that becomes harder to stop with each passing day... and this is the plan.

18 Zelensky, Volodymyr, "Volodymyr Zelensky. Big interview for CNN (2022) News of Ukraine," Odessa Film Studio reupload of CNN interview between Fareed Zakaria and Zelensky, March 20, 2022.

In a CNN interview on March 20, 2022, Zelensky admitted to knowingly going along with this, stating that since before Russia's invasion NATO had told him directly Ukraine will never be allowed to join, "but publicly the doors will remain open."¹⁸ That means his repeated public demands for NATO membership have always been a knowing ruse, and a willing use of his countrymen as fodder to help the US and NATO generate pressure against Russia with no intention of actually granting NATO membership. Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a mandate to make peace with rebels in the Donbas and enforce the Minsk agreements. Had he followed through, Ukraine could have been stabilized as a neutral nation and the Russian invasion averted. However, he did the opposite, wedged pawn-like between the demands of the US and NATO on the one side, and a Neo-Nazi infiltrated military that penetrates all levels of government on the other. Giving the benefit of the doubt, the best one might say of Zelensky is that his decisions are being made because he is scared for his life. Regardless, what he is not is the hero pumped up in Western media.

19 Dore, Jimmy and Maté, Aaron, "'Nobody Cares About Ukraine' Admits NATO Advisor," The Jimmy Dore Show, Oct. 8 2022.

2. To financially weaken Russia. Since the days of the Soviet Union, the US has a long history of doing everything it can to financially isolate and bleed Russia in order to weaken its global market presence, and in doing so strengthen US presence. For decades, US officials have spoken on and off record about ensnaring Russia in a prolonged war with Ukraine for just such a purpose, similar in impact to the war in Afghanistan. At a press conference in June, 2022, US Senator Lindsay Graham said about Ukraine, "Four months into this thing, I like the structural path we're on here. As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person." In an October 2022 interview with Swiss diplomat and former NATO advisor Jacques Baud by Maté, Baud said, "nobody [at NATO] cares about Ukraine," and he was disturbed that, "the problem is not the victory of Ukraine, but the defeat of Russia. That's exactly what the West is aiming at." During Maté's appearance on "The Jimmy Dore Show," this was described as Baud's tacit admission, "that the West is not assisting in the war to support Ukrainian sovereignty or minimize the suffering of the Ukrainian people. No, Ukraine is merely a patsy and its people are providing cannon fodder in the proxy war NATO is waging to undermine and marginalize Russia - just as critics have argued all along."¹⁹ Of course, Ukraine officials have been complicit in this planned demolition of their country from the start. In a 2019 interview, Zelensky's recently ejected (more on that later) close advisor and top lieutenant Olesksiy Arestovych was asked how NATO support could bring an end to internal conflict and help avoid a Russian invasion. His response was that NATO involvement clearly meant the opposite, and guaranteed Russian engagement - something he welcomed:

Arestovych: "No, there are no end-of-war deadlines [regarding conflict in the Donbas]. On the contrary, it will probably lead to a massive military operation by Russia against Ukraine. Because they're going to have to destroy us in terms of infrastructure and turn everything into devastation territory so that [NATO] don't want us."

Interviewer: "So Russia can go to direct confrontation with NATO?"

A: "No, not with NATO. We're not going to make it [into NATO before such a confrontation, technically leaving NATO out of it]. They have to do it before we join NATO, so NATO won't be interested in us. They wouldn't be interested because of the devastation. With a 99.9% probability, the price for our entry into NATO is a major war with Russia."

I: "So on balance, which is better?"

A: "Of course a large scale war with Russia and joining NATO as a result of defeating Russia. The coolest thing."²⁰

20 Arestovych, Oleksiy, "Zelenskyy advisor Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019: War would be "the coolest thing"; and "Oleksiy Arestovych and his prediction of Russian aggression (2019) - EN subtitles". Original on Arestovych's own YouTube channel, "Арестович: Что мы знали о войне три года назад," March 18, 2019.

The US and NATO have successfully used Ukraine as bait for this financially profitable war. And as with all wars, the US knows profits are not reliant upon victory. To the contrary, an unwinnable, prolonged war works best. The US and NATO are venturing that Ukraine cannot win this war. Whether or not Zelensky and his advisors believe the war is winnable, I don't know, but either way they certainly understand it means the destruction of their nation. In my view, that is a criminal act upon the Ukrainian people. The fact that Ukraine's devastation has been deliberately fostered from within is as great or greater a crime than Russia's invasion.

21 Dore, Jimmy, " NY Times Pro-Ukraine War Propaganda Hits Laughable New Low," The Jimmy Dore Show, January 27, 2023. 22 Ibid.

3. US control of gas supplies to Europe and the UK. As with most US international military meddling, energy supplies are also a key factor in Ukraine. Since 2011, Russia had been building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring 33% more gas directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Until now, about 65% of Russian gas has first had to pass through Ukraine and other East European countries. Therefore, the US has always sought to politically control those countries, and oppose the Nord Stream 2, in order to have greater economic influence over Europe's gas supply. With the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in September, 2021, Russia was looking to deliver more gas directly to Germany than was currently routed through Ukraine. The US took this as a loss of political and economic power. On September 26, 2022, pipes A and B of Nord Stream 1, and pipe A of Nord Stream 2 were deliberately sabotaged beyond repair - most likely by the US. Only pipe B of Nord Stream 2 remains operational. Of course, US "intelligence" was quick to blame the Russians for destroying their own $11 billion pipelines - this, despite the fact that Russia gained absolutely nothing by doing so, and could simply turn them off at any time if they wished to deprive Europe of gas. This, despite the fact that US under secretary Victoria Nuland had previously said, "If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward."²¹ This, despite President Biden (who's son sat on the advisory board of Ukraine gas and oil corporation Burisma Holdings until 2019) having previously said, "If Russia invades... again, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring and end to it."²²

23 Ibid.

But have no fear, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 1, 2022, a few days after the bombing, it "offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come."²³ By lucky coincidence, the Baltic Pipe was inaugurated the very next day after the bombing of Nord Stream 2, on September 27. Running through US and NATO allies Norway, Denmark and Poland, Baltic Pipe was built with the openly advertised mission of weaning Europe off Russian gas. Baltic Pipe went into full operation on November 30, on which date Germany and Norway formally asked the NATO secretary-general to establish an alliance to protect critical underwater infrastructure... you know, just in case the US decides for whatever reason to take out another one of the pipelines they've invested in. Then on December 7, the UK announced its agreement to double imports of US gas over the next year. Sadly for Ukraine, although the US still holds an interest in controlling Ukrainian pipelines between Russia and Europe, one can be sure that these competing supply chains allows the US to see Ukrainian infrastructure as all the more dispensable - as explained by Arestovych earlier.

24 Sly, Liz, "Zelensky faces outpouring of critcism over failure to warn of war," The Washington Post, August 18, 2022.

You might say this all sounds like conspiracy theories. You might say the Ukrainian war is actually about the Ukrainian peoples' urgent struggle for sovereignty from the unpredictable moves of that madman Putin. But as has already been shown, Zelensky and his advisors baited the invasion on behalf of the US and NATO. Furthermore, they withheld knowledge of its inevitability from their own public. In an August 18 interview with the Washington Post, "Zelensky cited his fears that [if told of the invasion's inevitability] Ukrainians would panic, flee the country and trigger economic collapse."²⁴ It is clear that for all players involved, the Ukrainian people are the most expendable natural resource.

This is why any endorsement of the one-dimensional "unprovoked Russian invasion" narrative - even when upheld by a charity - is an insult to the Ukrainian people themselves. As the catch copy of "humanitarian aid," it belies the most cynical (or ignorant) exploitation of Ukrainian lives by facilitating the very propaganda necessary to keep the war going ad nauseam. It keeps negotiation for a multi-culturally neutral Ukraine off the table.

25 Constantin, Sergiu, "Ethnic and linguistic identity in Ukraine? It’s complicated," EURAC Research, March 21, 2022.

It is important to remember that about 1 in 6 Ukrainians are ethnic Russian, and 1 in 3 speak Russian as their native language.²⁵ The majority of native Russian speakers, who also tend to culturally and politically feel closer to Russia than the EU, live in the eastern Donbas region sharing a border with Russia. Over the decades elected political leaders have switched between moving Ukrainian trade and culture between Russia and the EU. The very extreme ends of these redirections have come to take the form of Ukrainian ethnic Russian separatists on the one side (misleadingly referred to as "Russian rebels" by the Western press, deliberately inferring they are not Ukrainian citizens), and Neo-Nazis on the other (Azov Regiment, etc.). They are all Ukraine.

VI. Historical Context and the US/NATO Role in Setting Up Ukraine for Invasion by Russia
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• In 2005, Viktor Yushchenko was elected president on a political platform of leading Ukraine towards NATO and the EU.

• In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was elected, and in 2013 his government sought to stop Ukraine's petition for entry into the EU in order to revive economic ties with Russia. This resulted in months of mass rallies in Kyiv.

26 Anonymous, "Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call," BBC News, February 7, 2014.

• In February, 2014, Yanukovych was ousted by pro-EU officials in the "Revolution of Dignity." However, audio leaked on February 4, 2014, of a call between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, indicate a level of US involvement in the selection of new Ukrainian leadership that suggested a coupe. In particular, they discussed keeping Neo-Nazi leaders involved "on the outside" for public image, but "talked to four times a week" by the President. In regard to the economic instability the US will cause the EU by complicating ties with Russian supply chains, Nuland literally said, "Fuck the EU."²⁶ This marked the beginning of the US pouring weapons into Ukraine.

• Whether you consider it a "revolution" or "coupe," as a result of that pro-EU change-over, Ukrainian ethnic Russians in the Donbas region declared independence over a belief their elected officials were ousted unjustly.

• Fearing NATO border presence at their strategic port on the Black Sea, Russia seized the Ukrainian region of Crimea. The annexation was ratified by referendum on March 16, 2014, by a Ukrainian public that is majority ethnic Russian.

• In April, 2014, people in the Donbas region called for a status referendum similar to the one in Crimea. In turn, the Armed Forces of Ukraine sought to reclaim the region from the separatists.

27 Wojcik, John, "Ukrainian rightists burn alive 39 at Odessa union building," People's World, May 5, 2014. 28 Hildebrandt, Tina and di Lorenzo, Giovanni, "Hatten Sie gedacht, ich komme mit Pferdeschwanz?" Die Zeit, December 7, 2022.

• On May 2, 2014, Neo-Nazis of the Right Sector burned alive 39 pro-separatists, including women and children, at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa.²⁷

• In September, 2014, the Minsk agreements (Minsk accord) were negotiated to end internal bombings and military actions in the Donbas regions. Internationally agreed upon by both the EU and Russia, Ukraine forces were to cease bombing their own people, the Donbas would remain a part of Ukraine, and elections would be held allowing for greater local control of regional governments. Despite anti-Russian propaganda, Russia was the most good-faith actor in these negotiations. Over the next eight years it consistently advocated the Donbas remain part of Ukraine up until its February 2022 invasion. Even today, Russia prefers an independent Donbas and is not seeking to absorb the region into Russia if possible. To the contrary, in a December 7, 2022 interview with Die Zeit, former German Prime Minister Angela Merkel let it slip out that NATO members were bad-faith actors with no intention of compelling Ukraine forces to stop their bombings of the Donbas and lay down their weapons. "The 2014 Minsk agreements were an attempt to give Ukraine time. They used that time to get stronger," she said, in effect keeping the Donbas conflict frozen until Ukraine could be pumped with enough NATO military equipment to enter a full-on conflict with Russia.²⁸ By Merkel's own assessment, this is why Russia is so mistrustful of the West, and so reluctant to believe in the possibility of a sincere peace accord.

• In 2019, Zelensky was elected president on a political platform of bringing peace to the Donbas and ending the ongoing civil war. However, once elected he quickly began a pattern of capitulation to the pressures of the far right. (See Maté's story about the beating and firing of Zelensky's good friend Sergei Sivoko recounted in footnote 4.)

29 Roman Romanyuk, "From Zelenskyy's "Surrender" to Putin's Surrender. How Negotiations with Russia Are Going," Ukrainska Pravda, May 5, 2022.

• Western deception around peace accords happened again in 2022, just a few weeks into the current conflict, when Russia and Ukraine already had reached a tentative agreement to end the war as early as April. Russia was to withdraw, and in exchange Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership. However, on April 9, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he successfully pressured Zelinsky to break negotiations with Russia because "even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, [NATO] are not."²⁹

30 Coynash, Halya, "Ukraine’s MPs leave Donbas pensioners to keep dying for their pensions," Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 2, 2020.

• Meanwhile, during the eight years between 2014 until 2022, the bombings of the Donbas continued, at a cost of over 14,000 Ukrainian lives. Again, the US and NATO members, as well as Ukrainian leadership, couldn't have cared less. They all collaborated to make those deaths happen by operating in willful violation of the Minsk agreements to which they all signed. Other cruelties were also imposed on the people of the Donbas, such as Ukraine legislators refusing to support a bill which would make it possible for seniors living in occupied territory to get their pensions "without grueling, and sometimes fatal, journeys to government-controlled areas."³⁰ As a result, nearly half of the one million pensioners in the region were unable to receive their payments, yet forced to remain in the region due to a lack of anywhere else to go.

VII. Abuses From All Sides Necessitate Questioning and Pacifist Action
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31 Rubinstein, Alexander, "UN envoy admits fabricating claim of Viagra-fueled rape as ‘Russian military strategy’" The Grayzone, November 13, 2022.

As a prime example, UN Special Representative Pramila Patten was caught using the same disproven propaganda that NATO used during its Libyan regime change in 2011: publicly claiming that Russian soldiers were formally issued Viagra in order to rape people. Speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on October 14, the UN envoy said with conviction, “All the indications are there. When women are held for days and raped, when you start to rape little boys and men, when you see a series of genital mutilations, when you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy." As Alexander Rubinstein reported in "The Grayzone" on November 13, it was only during a taped call on October 10 by Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov (Vovan and Lexus) that Patten admitted that there was no evidence to back her claims.³¹

32 Anonymous, "An update from the K41 Community Fund: 16.06.2022," K41 Community Fund website, December 20, 2022.

I have zero doubt that rape and other abuses are happening during this Ukraine conflict. I understand that it happens daily even without such conflicts. I understand that all militaries train their soldiers to dehumanize the enemy, while simultaneously immersing their members in a climate of death-fueled sexual frustration and frenzy. I grew up being fag-bashed by numerous assholes who immediately joined the US military after graduating high school. Back then I was friends with the girls they date raped. And in the here and now, I personally know people in Japan that have been raped by US military personnel stationed here. I understand the brutal reality that it happens constantly. This sensitivity grounded in experiential knowledge is also precisely why I am suspect when politicians, reporters, and even charities emotionally invoke the horrors of rape as catch copy without providing any details or context. Like Helen Lovejoy's cries about children, it reduces complex, culturally deep-rooted, real world terror down to knee-jerk emotional rhetoric for the purpose of fueling nationalist fervor. Often times it even posits an escalation of military involvement - the literal source of so much misery - as the solution to military abuses. This includes the K41 Community Fund website, where they repeat twice, "russian (sic) soldiers are still raping Ukrainian women and children."³² When it is presented as a simple take-my-word-for-it fact within a media climate of knowing lies and distortions on the scale of a UN Special Representative planting propaganda about Russian soldiers being issued Viagra to rape more, I can only come away feeling that, yes, I believe it is true to the extent that I also believe it is true of the Ukrainian and all other military forces. It is a sickeningly manipulative ambiguity.

33 Obaji, Philip Jr., "Survivors Say Putin’s Private Army Filmed Sex Assault Victims Stripped Naked," The Daily Beast, November 13, 2022; and Anonymous, "CAR: Russian Wagner Group harassing and intimidating civilians - UN experts," United Nations, October 27, 2021. 34 Jankowicz, Mia, "Video shows Russian mercenary boss releasing convicts after they fought in Ukraine, warning them not to rape or take drugs now they're free," Insider, January 5, 2023. 35 Stewart, Will, "'Don't rape women, drink too much or get up to no good': Wagner mercenary chief gives bizarre advice to first batch of Russian prisoners to be pardoned after surviving six months in Ukraine," January 5, 2023.

The situation today is further complicated by states increasingly relying upon capitalist enterprise mercenary groups. These groups are often not subjected to the same qualifications of state or consequences for their actions as government forces - qualifications and consequences that are already alarmingly inadequate. A corporate mercenary's responsibility ultimately rests with their shareholders. Another type of commercial mercenary configuration is The Wagner Group from Russia, which recruits men from prisons under the promise of a formal governmental pardon after fulfilling their contracted terms. Prior to their deployment in Ukraine, Wagner Group mercenaries committing rape and sexual abuse during campaigns in multiple African nations were already well documented.³³ During Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's January, 2023, address to the first group of men to be pardoned after surviving six months in Ukraine, he acknowledged the degree to which sexual abuses are customary when he directly instructed them "not to rape" once returned to public society.³⁴ Most people would cite this risk as being largely due to the fact they are criminals to start with (effectively exonerating the state and mercenary company?), despite the fact that many of the prisoners were allegedly forced to join in violation of human rights and used as cannon fodder (effectively exonerating individuals?).³⁵ The commonality between both of these different types of mercenaries is a convoluted and contradictory circumstance that legally diffuses responsibility just enough so that no individual or institution can be held fully accountable. This increases the odds of acquittal, as well as diffuses negative propaganda by perpetually shifting blame in the public eye. The evolution of state dependence upon mercenaries is not happenstance, but a bureaucratic response to the inevitability of rape and other crimes at the hands of militaries. It presents serious complications to traditional war tribunals and international courts - complications that are knowingly useful to both states and military industries.

Sadly, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine had even started, Amnesty International repeatedly confirmed countless systemic abuses by Ukrainian forces armed and trained by the US. Their 2021 report on Ukraine summarized the pre-invasion situation as follows:

Impunity for torture remained endemic. Gender-based violence remained widespread, although a new law removed legal obstacles to prosecuting military personnel and police for domestic violence. Homophobic attacks by groups advocating discrimination and violence continued. The investigation of attacks against journalists and human rights defenders was slow and often ineffective. A draft law on the security services envisaged additional powers of surveillance without legal safeguards. The crackdown on dissent and human rights defenders in occupied Crimea continued. Violations of international humanitarian law by both sides in eastern Ukraine remained uninvestigated.³⁶

36 Anonymous, "Ukraine 2021," Amnesty International, 2021. 37 Anonymous, "Ukraine: Ukrainian Fighting Tactics Endanger Civilians," Amnesty International, August 4, 2022. Just like CBS News was forced to retract their documentary, "Arming Ukraine," so was Amnesty International forced by today's climate of hysterical patriotism to apologize for this report under accusations of enabling pro-Russian propaganda. 38 Browne, Malachy; Hiltner, Stephen; Clarke-Williams, Chevaz and Turner, Taylor, "Videos Suggest Captive Russian Soldiers Were Killed at Close Range," The New York Times, November 20, 2022; Boffey, Daniel, "Ukraine government investigates video alleged to show torture of Russian PoWs," The Guardian, March 28, 2022; and Schlein, Lisa, "UN Investigators: Both Russia and Ukraine Abusing POWs," VOA, November 15, 2022. 39 Murphy, Jack and Parke, Dave, "From MARSOC to the Mozart Group | Andrew Milburn | Ep. 174," The Team House, November 9, 2022. 40 DeCamp, Dave, "CBS Removes Documentary on Ukraine Military Aid After Pressure from Ukrainian Government," Anti War, August 8, 2022. 41 Yamaguchi, Adam, "Arming Ukraine," CBS News, August 7, 2022 (deleted); reposted by Ditz, Jason, "Original CBS Documentary on Ukraine military aid," August 10, 2022. 42 Elwood, Graham, "American Mercenary Says 'Don’t Come To Ukraine,'" March 17, 2022. 43 In English, due to phonetic similarities with the word "passive," many people seem to confuse the word "pacifism" with literal passivity. However, the word is actually derived from the Latin "pacific," which means "peace making" [paci- (from pax) meaning “peace” and -ficus meaning “making”]. 44 Slow, Oliver, "Ukraine War: Zelensky Adviser Resigns Over Dnipro Remarks," BBC News, January 18, 2023. 45 Maté, Aaron, "Zelensky Forces Aide To Resign For Telling Truth About Russia!" The Jimmy Dore Show, January 20, 2023. 46 Sagan, Carl, "Charlie Rose," reupload of interview from May 27, 1966.

It was no surprise, then, when Amnesty International confirmed that atrocities and human rights violations continued to be committed by Ukrainian forces after Russia's invasion.³⁷ To make matters worse, many of those atrocities are self-documented by Ukrainian troops themselves, who video their torture and execution of prisoners of war.³⁸ Many Western mercenaries have also testified to this common reality, including NATO-supported mercenary Mozart Group founder Andrew Milburn, a pro-war "good guy" who - as a Ukraine ally - openly calls Ukraine "a corrupt, fucked up society."³⁹ Milburn was one of the sources who told CBS News about weapons being sold on the black market, and that only about 30% actually reach the battlefield - a story which CBS was pressured by the Ukrainian government into taking down.⁴⁰ In the CBS interview, when Milburn was asked if he was concerned about weapons being sold on the black market, he crassly retorted, "I don't care at all whether that happens."⁴¹ That's the attitude of a "good guy" mercenary with power. Other ground-level volunteer mercenaries without the clout of Milburn have barely managed to return to the West, telling horror stories of their escapes from Ukraine, where they were trapped and used as expendables by Ukrainian troops under threat of being shot in the back.⁴² Like the reports of abuses by Russian troops, it all lays bare the reality that there is no good side. Not in this war. Not in any war.

This is why, contrary to what the ∄ team member said over beer, pacifism is a necessary strategic option. Contrary to common misconceptions, pacifism is not about passively lying down and taking abuse.⁴³ It is about actively pursuing negotiation despite all sides pushing for destruction. Unlike the nationalist who demands blind conformity, and despite common associations between pacifism and religious faith, on a functional level pacifism need not be about ideological conversion nor indoctrination of any kind. At its core, pacifism is about the prioritization of non-violent negotiation over military brokering. History teaches us daily, from every corner of the world, that war is too profitable for military industries to ever do this willingly - thus the cultural need to fabricate unquestioning patriotism in order to cloak their ulterior motives and horrific social abuses.

As a surprisingly recent example of such fabrication, on January 21, 2023, Zelensky's long time aide Oleksiy Arestovych (quoted earlier) was forced to resign after revealing that Ukrainian air defenses were likely responsible for the bombing of a residential building in Dnipro, and not a Russian missile, which is Ukraine's official story.⁴⁴ There are also reports (currently pending confirmation by Maté) that as a result Arestovych's name has been placed on a kill list.⁴⁵ At the moment, basic realism, self reflection, honesty, critical inquiry - even the unavoidable fact that mistakes happen and friendly fire is a part of war - is all immediately censored by the Ukrainian government in order to keep the public focused on Russia as the sole and external source for all suffering. The result is a controlled narrative of propaganda that eradicates public questions about the Ukrainian government's own actions, in order to continue pursuing agendas that absolutely result in more death and suffering. Of course, this is paralleled by the US and NATO exerting similarly radical control over Ukraine narratives in Western media, making every effort to generate hysteric and unquestioning support for a blank check policy in funding this war. The power of these distorted narratives, along with the cultural normalization of systemic censorship they require in order to take on the appearance of factuality, has a causal effect upon societies. As astronomer and cultural critic Carl Sagan once said, "If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of authority, then we are up for grabs for the next charlatan - political or religious - who comes ambling along."⁴⁶

Pacifist social organizing is an active response to this never-ending reality. In its ceaselessness it is anything but passive. As with so many other terms associated with culturally minor positions and taboo sites of resistance ("queer," "trans," "atheist," "feminist," to name a few), the fact that the word "pacifist" is so globally disdained lends all the more credence to the notion that pacifist practices do challenge authority, and are valuable when prioritizing the negotiation of peace amidst hegemonic cultural narratives that insist the only path forward is more warfare. And as with so many people experiencing attacks when socially organizing from within those other taboo sites of resistance, the proof that pacifism is not simply a rhetorical game or private choice becomes all the more obvious when considering the massive social infrastructure and expense - both governmental and corporate - involved in censoring, harassing, shaming, ostracizing, imprisoning, and even murdering pacifist organizers.

VIII. Closing Thoughts
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When it comes to the Western music industry and press representing the K41 Community Fund as a strictly humanitarian charity, and completely overlooking the issue of weapons, I feel compelled to call out the hypocrisy of the situation. Why has this not been looked into or elaborated upon? Why is it not part of the descriptions of the K41 Charity Fund's activities as they appear in Western media and record label charity press releases? This lack of inquiry exposes a cultural and political shallowness within music industries. It proves once again that the liberal humanist rhetoric of "peace and love" is easily swayed to the servitude of larger agendas for violence. Like the act of purchasing a charity album itself, it is ultimately a hollow expression of the desire for political involvement without actual involvement. The resulting cultural hollowness reverberates with the horrors of death's perpetuation.

47 Zelensky is already promising 'big business' for US corporations in post-war reconstruction. In his "Address to the U.S. National Association of State Chambers," delivered on January 23, 2023, he crassly pandered to US investors: We are defending freedom and property. [...] Together we'll be able to start the difficult work of rebuilding Ukraine - our cities, our economy, our infrastructure. It is already clear that this will be the largest economic project of our time in Europe. It is obvious that American business can become the locomotive that will once again push forward economic growth. We have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of the international financial and investment world as BlackRock, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Such American brands as Starlink or Westinghouse have already become part of our Ukrainian way. Your brilliant defense systems - such as HIMARS or Bradleys - are already uniting our history of freedom with your enterprises. We are waiting for Patriots [missiles]. We are looking closely at Abrams [tanks]. Thousands of such examples are possible. And everyone can become a big business by working with Ukraine in all sectors, from weapons and defense to construction, from communication to agriculture, from transport to IT, from banks to medicine. A friend recently asked me what possible motivation Zelensky could have for going along with the destruction of Ukraine's current infrastructure. This speech certainly posits 'big business' as an undeniable factor for him and his colleagues. And it is not the first time Ukrainian officials have displayed the links between war and profits so shamelessly. For example, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., sent out invitations for a reception on December 8, 2022, emblazoned with the logos of major US weapons manufacturers: Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin. Thinking about potential profits from reconstruction also adds a new layer of meaning to Arestovych's interview from 2019 quoted earlier, in which he looked forward to the impending total destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure as "the coolest thing." Upon hearing Zelensky's address, I could not help wondering if part of the message Boris Johnson brought to Kyiv in April, 2022, was a threat of the West reducing or withholding reconstruction investments if Ukraine entered into a peace treaty with Russia so soon (i.e., before the desired level of destruction Arestovych predicted would be necessary for complete Western alliance had been met). Meanwhile, recent news articles outlining plans to develop post-war Ukraine into a digital currency and citizen tracking utopia suggests the nation could become an experiment in what the World Economic Forum (WEF) refers to as "The Great Reset." Disgracefully, none of these anticipated futures could actually result in the cultivation of rights for the people of Ukraine. To the contrary, it would ensure the citizenship's continued subjugation to corruption, and an inability to self-organize - including labor organizing. Zelensky, Volodymyr, "Address to the U.S. National Association of State Chambers," January 23, 2023; and Guyer, Johnathan, "This DC party invite shows all the money to be made off the Ukraine war: A Ukrainian Embassy reception, sponsored by America’s biggest weapons makers," Vice, Dec. 16, 2022.

After more than eight years of the US and NATO flooding Ukraine with weapons, it is clear that Western discussions and social responses to the war must focus not only on Russia, but equally if not more so on the US and NATO for their instigating roles, as well as their interference with peace negotiations. Unsurprisingly, such shared focus has been made near impossible - conceptually, culturally and legally - both within and without Ukraine. Based on historical precedent, it is realistic to surmise the war will go on as long as the US and NATO can keep it going. Similarly, when it finally does come to an end, the result for Ukrainians will surely be more years of outside political meddling, internal division, material wreckage and misery.⁴⁷ It is truly a heartbreaking thought.

Despite its unlikelihood, I wish a speedy negotiation of peace for the Ukrainian people. I hope they can find their footing as a culturally diverse and politically neutral nation. In addition to facing Russia's offenses, I hope they see through the false outrage of Western pro-Ukrainian propaganda, and never forget the heartless role US and NATO members have played in their country's destruction. And I promise I will never forget the roles major and minor Western music industries have all played - intentionally or not - in convincing the public that this nightmare must be prolonged, and that negotiation is not an option.

To those thinking of donating to the K41 Community Fund, I hope you will not simply rely upon their Western media image as being all about liberal club culture, artist support, and humanitarian aid. As with any donation, I encourage you to take the time to investigate the fund's activities in order to make an informed decision about whether or not they align with your own beliefs about how to best help alleviate suffering within Ukraine.