Anarchists and Leftists Beat the Drum for NATO’s War in Ukraine

Drones for Ukraine. Radical Aid Force on X.

By Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 17 July 2026. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

Leftist organisations from Ukraine and Western countries have been supplying food, everyday essentials and medicines to people and animals in need in the war-torn regions for years. Anarchist-aligned groups such as the Solidarity Collectives (SC) network, Radical Aid Force (RAF) and Good Night Imperial Pride (GNIP) also support the Ukrainian military and fuel the Zelenskyy government’s propaganda. Some activists have even volunteered to join the Kyiv army. Under the title “Anti-Authoritarians at War,” SC, in collaboration with RAF, is currently screening a public relations film in several German cities.

“I am a member of the world’s largest antifascist organisation,” says an SC soldier in a fundraising video. “It is the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” This is a rather bold claim, given that the army and National Guard currently include, among others, the two Azov corps commanded by Nazi leaders, which alone have a combined strength of between 80,000 and 160,000 soldiers (not counting the many other far-right units). Other inconvenient truths are made to fit this specific anarchist worldview and its interpretation of history based on an ahistorical idealism. Sergiy Movchan, a spokesperson for SC, described the operations of the Ukrainian military — heavily armed by NATO countries — as a “people’s war.”

Some “anti-authoritarians” see themselves as following in the tradition of those who fought against Franco in Spain; others simply want to fight against Russia, just as their grandparents once fought against the Soviet Union — which, to them, was just as much an “occupation force” as the German Wehrmacht.

“Fallen but not forgotten…” Anarchist Black Cross Dresden. Posted by Radical Aid Force on X.

Marxists who refuse to engage in ideological indoctrination are scurrilously branded by GNIP as “the mouthpiece of the fascist ideology of modern-day Russia” and by SC as collaborators with “the oppressors.” “They are effectively wishing that they were dead,” an SC activist lamented in an interview with Radio Dreyeckland, referring to anti-militarists who refuse to profess solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers. Consequently, “busification” — the widespread practice of abduction and forced recruitment into the Ukrainian army, which is now finally being reported by mainstream Western media — is, at best, ignored or even downplayed.

Militant “anti-authoritarians” joined forces in 2022 to form the Resistance Committee. Some of them had frontline experience, with a considerable number of anarchist fighters gaining combat experience in Rojava. Others had already participated in 2014, following the Euromaidan coup, in the new Kyiv government’s punitive expedition against the antifascist insurgency in the Donbass. Whether serving in the Territorial Defence Forces or in sabotage units of the Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR), in which “anti-authoritarians” had enlisted (allegedly only to protect the population): what SC and its allies in this country glorify as “autonomous” and “self-organised” on their fundraising tours through left-wing centres in Germany was, from the outset, under the direction of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and General Staff.

Networks of “anarchist resistance” apparently not only support the Ukrainian security apparatus; they have also made some rather dubious compromises. A photo published by Radical Aid Force shows a soldier equipped by the group with drone technology, wearing the emblem of the fascist party UNA-UNSO on his chest. In October 2025, there was a post thanking the RAF for a delivery of weaponry accessories from the GUR’s International Legion, which is riddled with neo-Nazis, including supporters of the Misanthropic Division.

None of this has dampened the enthusiasm among leftist German supporters. The “Anti-Authoritarians at War” film will be screened in the coming days at the FAU venue in Berlin and at the Rote Flora cultural centre in Hamburg. The latter had already screened a documentary in 2022 that celebrated as “antifascists” Arsenal Kyiv FC hooligans, who were organised within the Resistance Committee, conveniently omitting the fact that their leader was deputy commander of a volunteer battalion of the fascist Right Sector (Pravyi Sektor). Political and financial backing for the SC and the RAF is coming from the right wing of the Left Party (Die Linke), for example from the Berlin and Saxony regional branches, and from state parliamentarians such as Michael Efler (Berlin House of Representatives) and Juliane Nagel (Saxon State Parliament). Their party colleague Artyom Stassyuk posted a photo on his X-channel last year showing armed members of the Resistance Committee posing over a corpse — presumably that of a killed Russian — displaying an eco-anarchist flag and the slogan ”Go vegan or die!”

Original article: Susann Witt-Stahl, “Über Leichen. Während in der Ukraine der Widerstand gegen Zwangsrekrutierungen wächst, rühren NATO-Linke weiter die Trommel für die Fortsetzung des »Volkskrieges«.” junge Welt, 17.07.2026. The heading of the original article reads: “Over dead bodies. Whilst resistance to forced conscription is growing in Ukraine, leftist NATO supporters continue to beat the drum for the continuation of the ‘people’s war.’” The article has been very lightly edited.

“I will rave on Putin’s grave.” Ukraine solidarity rally, Berlin, 24 February 2024 (jW screenshot)