Webinars and Other Videos

These videos were either produced by the Ukraine Solidarity Network or include members of the Ukraine Solidarity Network as speakers.

Solidarity with Ukraine: A Feminist Perspective
(September 18, 2024)

More than two years have passed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During this time, the Russian army has killed over 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and hundreds of thousands have been injured and killed. The Russian forces have systematically committed crimes against the civilian population, including torture, rape, physical and psychological violence, and bombing civilians and infrastructure. Despite these atrocities, the resistance of the Ukrainian people has been heroic, with Ukrainian women taking an active role in the defense of their country.

We asked Ukrainian feminists to speak on why the struggle against Russia’s imperialist invasion is not only about Ukraine, and why it is also about the future of humanity and should matter to the whole world.

Green Socialist Notes: Daria Saburova
(June 22, 2024)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Daria Saburova a Ukrainian socialist feminist and author of Workers of the Resistance: The Ukrainian Working Classes Face the War.

Green Socialist Notes: Denys Pilash
(April 20, 2024)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Denys Pilash, a political scientist at Kyiv National University, activist with the Ukrainian democratic socialist organization Social Movement (Sotsialniy Rukh), and member of the editorial board of Commons: Journal of Social Criticism.

Axis of Reaction: Putin and the Global Far Right
(February 28, 2024)

Join a discussion on opposing occupation and building solidarity among oppressed nations from Ukraine to Palestine.

Israel has launched a genocidal war against Palestine at the very same time as Russia continues its imperialist attempt to annex Ukraine. This panel will challenge the selective solidarity that haunts the left and argue for solidarity between Palestine and Ukraine’s struggle for liberation and self-determination.

frieda · Panel on Redefining Feminist Internationalism: Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Iran, U.S.

Frieda Afary: Panel on Redefining Feminist Internationalism: Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Iran, U.S.
(December 6, 2023)

The world has plunged into a new stage of state-orchestrated atrocities with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Israel’s invasion of Gaza following Hamas’s brutal assault on Israeli civilians in October, 2023. As wars rage, the plight of women and LGBTQ+ people often goes unremarked. Panelists from Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Iran, U.S. share intersectional feminist perspectives for building solidarity, ending racial, economic, and gender violence, and stopping colonial and imperialist wars.

How do we talk about the situation in Ukraine in the post-October 7th political landscape?
(November 18, 2023)

A talk by Bill Fletcher, Jr., interviewed by Barbara Smith, on November 18, 2023 at Albany Public Library’s Washington Ave Branch. Presented by Ukraine Solidarity Capital District. Bill Fletcher, Jr., is the co-author (with Peter Agard) of The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941, co-author (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice, and the author of ‘They’re Bankrupting Us’ and Twenty Other Myths About Unions. He has been an activist since his teen years and has worked for several labor unions in addition to serving as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO.

From Ukraine to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime
(November 2, 2023)

Join a discussion on opposing occupation and building solidarity among oppressed nations from Ukraine to Palestine.

Democracy Now! Can Peace in Ukraine Be Achieved Without War? Medea Benjamin & Barbara Smith Debate
(October 11, 2023)

So far this year, U.S. spending on Israel, typically the largest annual recipient of U.S. military aid, has been outstripped by military aid to Ukraine, though that balance could begin to change as President Biden plans to ask Congress to approve emergency funding to support Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip following Saturday’s attack by Hamas militants. For more on U.S. policy in Ukraine and Israel, we host a discussion with CodePink’s Medea Benjamin and the Ukraine Solidarity Network’s Barbara Smith. Benjamin urges diplomacy and deescalation, arguing that “we have to get off this treadmill of military madness that only benefits the weapons companies and brings horror, suffering, death, destruction,” while Smith, a co-founder of the Combahee River Collective and of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, says that calls for immediate ceasefire are idealistic. “This is an invasion by an imperial power, namely Russia, and I stand with the people of Ukraine,” she states.

Democracy Now! Ukrainian & Russian Activists Call for Peace and Solidarity Against Putin’s Regime
(September 7, 2023)

On the same day U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv to announce $1 billion in new U.S. aid to Ukraine, 17 Ukrainians were killed in a Russian missile attack on a Donetsk market. “It’s very painful for me to see all the streets and cities that I spent my childhood in to be completely destroyed by the ongoing war,” says Hanna Perekhoda, Ukrainian historian from the Donetsk region on a speaking tour of the U.S. calling for an end to the war by driving out Putin’s occupation. “If we let Russian authoritarians win, it will mean that the authoritarian forces also in our countries, in the U.S., for example, will grow stronger.” Perekhoda is joined on the speaking tour by Russian historian Ilya Budraitskis, who agrees that this war is about Putin’s regime maintaining its power. “This criminal war is not just a war against Ukraine. It’s a war of the Russian regime against its own society,” says Budraitskis.

Solidarity with Ukraine’s workers
(September 7, 2023)

What is the role labor unions should play in the Russia-Ukraine War? In a special conversation moderated by Bill Fletcher Jr., former president of the TransAfrica Forum, panelists make the case for why they believe arming Ukraine shows solidarity with workers. International Secretary of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine Olesia Briazgunova, Brazilian Labor and People’s Federation member Fabio Bosco, and UK University and College Union member Liz Lawrence join The Real News. Bill Fletcher Jr. is a member of The Real News Board of Directors.

Green Socialist Notes: Hanna Perekhoda
(August 26, 2023)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Ukrainian socialist Hanna Perekhoda.

Green Socialist Notes: Ilya Budraitskis
(August 19, 2023)

Howie Hawkins is joined by exiled Russian Socialist Ilya Budraitskis!

Green Socialist Notes: Svitlana Romanko
(August 5, 2023)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Svitlana Romanko, a Ukrainian climate activist who was the 350.org leader in Ukraine pre-war and now runs Razom We Stand, which is focused on promoting fossil fuel sanctions against Russia and a green transition in Ukraine in post-war reconstruction.

Eric Draitser: Ilya Budraitskis on the Russian Left, Putin’s War on Lenin, and the Question of Russian Imperialism
(July 5, 2023)

Eric chats with Ilya Budraitskis, a Russian historian, political activist, and author of “Dissidents among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics, and the Left in Post-Soviet Russia.” Ilya explains his decision to leave Russia in the days following the invasion of Ukraine, and provides an analysis of the early antiwar protests forcibly suppressed by the Kremlin. From there, Ilya provides an analysis of the Russian Left, including the reactionary Communist Party of Russia, and explains the various dynamics at play in Russia. The final portion of the discussion centers around the questions of Russian imperialism and the ideological war Putin has waged on the history and legacy of Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution.

Green Socialist Notes, Yulia Yurchenko
(May 20, 2023)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Yulia Yurchenko, a Ukrainian author and activist. Recorded while at the 2023 Great Transition conference, hosted by Historical Materialism, in Montreal Canada.

Resisting the Shock Doctrine: Ukraine, Debt, and Reconstruction
(May 11, 2023)

Join leading international relations experts Gilbert Achcar and Ilya Budraitskis as the discuss Achcar’s latest book The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warnings of a new Cold War proliferated. In fact, the New Cold War has been ongoing since the late 1990s.

Racing to solidify its position as the last remaining superpower, the US alienated Russia and China, pushing them closer and rebooting the ‘old’ Cold War with disastrous implications. Vladimir Putin’s consequent rise and imperialist reinvention, along with Xi Jinping’s own ascendancy and increasingly autocratic tendencies, would culminate, respectively, in the invasion of Ukraine and mounting tensions over Taiwan and trade.

Was all this inevitable? What comes after Ukraine, and what might the contours of a more peaceful world look like?

New Cold War: The US, Russia, and China Today
(April 4, 2023)

Join leading international relations experts Gilbert Achcar and Ilya Budraitskis as the discuss Achcar’s latest book The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warnings of a new Cold War proliferated. In fact, the New Cold War has been ongoing since the late 1990s.

Was all this inevitable? What comes after Ukraine, and what might the contours of a more peaceful world look like?

Russia Out! Solidarity with the Ukrainian Resistance
(February 25, 2023)

This February marks one year since Russia’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine. On the anniversary, people around the world are organizing events in solidarity with Ukraine’s heroic struggle for self-determination. On Saturday, February 25, 2023, please join our panel of scholars and activists for a discussion of the roots, nature, and politics of the war and the resistance.

A Debate on Ukraine
(February 23, 2023)

On the one year anniversary of its start, the Green Socialist Organizing Project hosts a discussion on Green Socialist perspectives on the war in Ukraine. Panelists will discuss key foundational ideas, the lead up and the current conflict, and the potential futures of Ukraine.

Panelists: Howie Hawkins, Margaret Kimberley, Matthew Hoh

Panel: Solidarity with Ukraine from the Global South w/Bill Fletcher Jr.
(January 31, 2023)

TRNN board member Bill Fletcher Jr. convenes Ukrainian historian and social activist Vladyslav Starodubtsev, Syrian-American activist Ramah Kudaimi, and Rafael Bernabel of the Puerto Rican Senate to discuss solidarity with Ukraine from parts of the Global South. This panel was produced in partnership with Haymarket Books.

Green Socialist Notes: Denys Bondar
(January 28, 2023)

Howie Hawkins is joined by Dr. Denys Bondar, a Ukrainian activist with Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement) and physicist.

Panel: Ukrainian and Russian academics discuss the war
(November 10, 2022)

Debates over the proper approach to the Russo-Ukrainian War have dominated much of the year. Yet discussions within the western left have not always featured the perspectives of Ukrainians and Russians themselves. The Real News Network board member Bill Fletcher, in partnership with Haymarket Books, hosts a panel with Ukrainian and Russian academics.

Green Socialist Notes: Yuliya Yurchenko
(September 3, 2022)

Howie Hawkins broadcasts from the Socialism 2022 conference in Chicago and is joined by Ukranian socialist and political economist Yuliya Yurchenko!

How Can Feminist Solidarity Help Ukraine?
(May 10, 2022)

Since Russia’s full-scale imperialist invasion of Ukraine was launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24, Putin’s speeches, Russian state propaganda and the actual massacres and rapes committed by the Russian army have revealed the genocidal and misogynist character of this invasion. At the same time, the resistance of the Ukrainian people has been heroic. There have been many other expressions of opposition to this war as well, ranging from global protests to humanitarian aid convoys and initiatives by individuals and groups to help the resistance in Ukraine.

Desperately needed is a coordinated global feminist solidarity effort to support the Ukrainian popular resistance and their struggle to maintain their country’s independence and democratic rights. This panel will argue that solidarity with Ukraine is critical for the present and future of women’s rights, anti-racism, labor rights, environmentalism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the right to truth and social justice seeking. The Ukrainian struggle is a determinant for the future of humanity. The speakers will also offer ideas on how feminists around the world can help the Ukrainian resistance, and in doing so, link the struggles against gender violence, misogyny, anti-Black racism, climate change and disinformation with each other and with the effort to develop an alternative to capitalism and imperialism.

Salvage Live: Russia, Ukraine, Imperialism & how the left should respond
(May 6, 2022)

We are joined by the Russian socialist and anti-war activist Ilya Matveev—co-founder of openleft.ru—and Ukrainian sociologist Voldoymyr Ishchenko, for a special edition of Salvage Live on the war in Ukraine. How did we get to this crisis? What might the future hold? How secure is Putin? Does this mark the passing of unipolar American hegemony, or not, and how should we understand imperialism today? As rival blocs spread carnage, socialist internationalism once again issues an urgent call to save the world from the flames.

Noam Chomsky: Noam Chomsky and Bill Fletcher Discuss the Ukraine Crisis
(April 7, 2022)

The ongoing war in Ukraine is a humanitarian disaster with tremendous geopolitical, economic, social, and climate-related repercussions that are being felt throughout the world. How have these horrific events come to pass? What will the short-term and long-term effects be on the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, and on the global political order? And what does a principled, internationalist, anti-imperialist left response to the war in Ukraine look like?In this special discussion, world-renowned linguist and analyst Noam Chomsky speaks with legendary activist and socialist Bill Fletcher, Jr. about the roots of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the background to the conflict, the US role, and how the Left can respond.

Putin’s War on Ukraine: History, Analysis, Solidarity
(March 7, 2022)

Russia’s large-scale invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine is among the most dangerous and disturbing events in recent European history and has occasioned an international crisis. Putin appears hell-bent on occupying all of Ukraine and setting up a puppet regime. While the situation is in flux and it’s unclear how it will play out, it is certain that the human consequences of the war will be horrendous, and the geopolitical consequences perilous.

How should we make sense of this crisis? What are the historical dynamics behind the current juncture? What are the ideological components of Putinism? What’s wrong with the responses of many leftists and antiwar activists? In contrast, what would a genuine socialist-internationalist perspective on the issue look like? How do Ukrainian and Russian leftists view the situation, and why are their perspectives missing from so much of the discussion on the Western left?