Don’t know about the draft.

However I will say this is not as simple as some people trying to declare this as some sort of imperialist war that Lenin warned against or to resist. I think Russian communists fighting for Russia against fascists is fine. It’s not ideal. But anti-imperialist real-politik often isn’t pretty (see for example the current Iran situation with what is unfolding to be a color revolution attempt. I’m a woman so the treatment of women there I consider abhorrent and abominable but I also know for a fact given the location and geopolitical situation there is near zero chance of any revolution there not turning the state into a puppet proxy for NATO/Israel).

Ukraine is a pawn and the current puppeted champion of NATO, a fascist terror organization run by the world imperialist consortium of capitalist exploitation loving monsters. It is being used in a proxy war to weaken and contain Russia. NATO intends to move into Ukraine if Russia loses. It is aggressive, it does engage in regime change, it supports internal fascism and it brings territories under indirect control of the evil empire. It does all kinds of cartoon evil shit, biological labs engaging in suspicious research on the Russian border, pushing fascist rhetoric and propaganda, cross-border incursions are likely in future, etc.

Ukraine is full of Nazis. The CIA has been promoting and breeding nazism and Ukrainian nationalism together since the 50s. It is not a simple matter of these people sprouting up in 2014 out of nowhere. This is a deep, deep problem that goes back to before the break-up of the Soviet Union but which got much worse and accelerated then.

Nazis must not be given quarter. Russia is as a matter of fact the only who can or will fight and destroy them.

It is a fact that if Russia loses in Ukraine it is much more than humiliation for Russia and a win for fascist NATO. We are already seeing growing fascist sympathies in Europe and the US as a direct result of this war, excusing of fascist terror, denial of fascist symbols being fascist, and pumping of weapons via the most corrupt country in Europe into the criminal underworld and probably staged for a new European gladio, and given to extreme reactionary groups, fascist paramilitaries, etc in the rest of Europe. If Ukraine wins the liberals will even more openly celebrate and venerate fascism and fascists and the fascists will celebrate as a victory will draw more to their ideology. Ukraine will be turned into an explicitly fascist state run by nazi gangsters if they win.

What then must we do to support the dual duties as communists of supporting anti-imperialism (and that in practice means Russia surviving not as a humiliated country in defeat or a western puppet, but strong, allied against the west with China) and of supporting the destruction of Nazis?

And what of supporting sanctioned countries? Russia is on the road to destroying the sanctions system of the west if they continue to resist and prevail.

Modern Russia is not the Soviet Union but sadly it is the only force here we can and must support critically. It is the only force for the destruction of these Nazis, it is the only force for the humiliation of NATO, the weakening of the criminal EU, the destruction of US hegemony in totality thanks to resistance to sanctions.

One last thing. I don’t think it’s problematic for communists to evade the draft in Russia. I can understand not wanting to fight under what increasingly looks like a not terribly competent and ultimately capitalist serving military. I don’t think staging protests or engaging in action against Russia’s fight for its survival (as this has turned into a fight over whether Russia prevails over NATO and the west or they prevail over it and there should be no question there as to who we prefer to win in that) is however an advisable thing for communists to do. I think that’s serving of the enemy in this situation and I think we have to analyze that if successful such resistance would serve the fascists, NATO, and hurt the Russian people (and many other peoples if fascism wins in Ukraine). But this is ultimately a call local communists will have to make.

The Russian communist’s party early statement about not supporting anything beyond the Donbas is not practical at this point. There was a time where it looked like Ukraine could be pressured to sign some agreements giving those regions freedom and a wider war was unnecessary. Time has shown that to be false. Zelensky’s regime survival depends on fighting to the last Ukrainian. It is necessary to topple it to stop the fighting, they’ll never stop fighting, never stop using NATO weapons against Russia as long as that regime stand and they’ll never stop arming Nazis and promoting nazism in their schools to brainwash a new generation of Russian-hating fascists.