11 August 2025
The British Army training Ukrainian recruits in 2023 on AS-90 self-propelled artillery guns, which were donated to Ukraine. Photo NATO via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Every week sees a new turn towards ending the war in Ukraine, without seeming to get anywhere. Keir Starmer talks peace on one hand, but declares himself and the EU to be allies of Zelensky. The RMT union takes a different view.
So when US President Trump claimed to have a plan to end the war, the other NATO powers, led by the Labour government reacted with horror. They distanced themselves as far as they could from Trump’s heresy and continue to do so.
Straightforward
In contrast to Starmer and Lammy, the RMT union expressed a straightforward view. At its annual meeting in Manchester in June, it demanded that the government stop providing military aid to Ukraine.
The union passed a motion calling on the government to “commit to work for a diplomatic, negotiated, lasting peace settlement.” It stated that despite a change of government Britain continues to play a belligerent role with military and economic support for Ukraine to defeat Russia in Ukraine, which has failed.
‘The union rejected cuts in living standards to fund a policy of war.’
The government’s military support package for Ukraine in 2025 is expected to cost a record £4.5 billion. The RMT conference explicitly rejected cuts in living standards to fund a policy of war.
The union’s position is clear on the question of Russia too. A spokesman said that it “…does not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine but pouring weapons into one side against the other is counterproductive to creating the conditions for a peaceful solution.”