WAR IS a catastrophe and the war in Ukraine is no exception. It has created a new and uniquely dangerous situation, altering the political balance in Europe, accelerating its militarisation, and raising the risk of nuclear war. 

This will have a profoundly negative impact on our societies, far beyond the immediate catastrophe of war. We are seeing bellicose nationalism generated by warmongers on all sides, with politicians and media glorifying militarism, exploiting the refugee crisis and stoking racism and xenophobia.

One of the great dangers we face is that the far right, which has developed significantly over the last decade, feeding off economic crisis and weaponising the pandemic, will further develop in this new context. 

We need to be very alert to that danger, and quick to counter it. Alarm bells have already been sounded by the appalling racism displayed towards African, Asian and Middle Eastern nationals attempting to leave Ukraine, and the verbal and physical abuse some have faced on arrival at the Polish border; the African Union summed this up as “shockingly racist and in breach of international law.”

As we mark the UN’s Anti-Racism Day, we reject the brutality, the hatred and the oppression which this war fever on the part of our leaders is generating. 

We reject the untold damage it will do to our society, and to our diverse communities. And we must be united in our determination to challenge the racism and xenophobia which so often accompanies war, and is used by government and media to distort public opinion and behaviour.

This week I heard a moving appeal from a Russian anti-war activist, who spoke of the millions of Russians that oppose the war and called on us all, in the peace movement and beyond, to oppose Russophobia. 

As they face arrest, brutality and imprisonment for their protests, it would only add to their distress if all the Russian people were deemed pro-war because of the actions of their politicians. 

During the Iraq war, we were very conscious of the crimes of our leaders and our cry “Not in our name” was our pledge to the world that we fought against that illegal war with all our strength. That same cry is coming from Russia and we must heed it. 

Colonel Ann Wright, from US Veterans for Peace, wrote recently: “As a US diplomat who resigned from the US government in 2003 in opposition to Bush and Blair’s war on Iraq, I hoped at the time that all Americans (and British) citizens would not be vilified by the world for the actions of the Bush and Blair administrations. 

“I have visited Russia twice in the past seven years and I know most Russians do not want a war and object to Putin’s war on Ukraine. 

“We should not vilify Russians for the actions of their political leaders, and recognise that they face criminal actions for speaking out against the war … and yet they still are speaking and writing. 

“I hope that we will be as generous to peace-seeking Russians as the world was to anti-war Americans and Britons.”

This is a powerful message and one that I hope we will stand by, while the frenzied rush to sever civil society links continues. 

To those breaking twinning links with Russian towns, I would say, maintain that contact, support anti-war voices, take steps to strengthen people-to-people connections against the war. 

As the Russian peace activist said, let us explore new ways of international dialogue between peoples, to create strong new connections to help build the kind of future we want to see.  

And we hear the same message from the peace movement in Ukraine, in the words sent to our recent rally in Trafalgar Square: “We call for the solidarity of global civil society in seeking non-violent solutions to the current crisis … with the help of all people in the world speaking truth to power … together we could build a better world without armies and borders.”

Never has it been more clear that the ordinary people of Ukraine and Russia — and indeed of Britain and across the world — have more in common with each other than they do with the leaders of their own countries. 

Let us fight to make this the reality that determines policy across our countries, rather than the current imperatives of war and profit. Let us build this together and help create the world of equality, justice and peace that we wish to see.