Pacifists have said that NATO governments and the Russian government are both to blame for military tension over Ukraine.

They accused politicians on both sides of the conflict of using the issue to distract attention from their problems at home.

There are thousands of Russian troops gathered on the Ukrainian border, and thousands of NATO troops gathered on other borders with Russia, including British troops in Estonia.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU), Britain’s leading pacifist organisation, said that NATO governments and the Russian government were using each other’s military aggression to justify their own. Both sides claim that they are acting defensively against the other’s aggression.

The Peace Pledge Union is the British section of War Resisters’ International, which unites pacifists around the world.

Pacifists in many countries have urged Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine and urged NATO not to sign up Ukraine as a member. Several countries in eastern Europe have joined NATO since the 1990s, contravening promises made by the US at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand eastwards.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss recently posed for photographs sitting in a tank while visiting British troops in Estonia. She claimed that they were at “the frontier of freedom”.

Truss repeated similar claims today (11 December) ahead of a G7 meeting in Liverpool. Six of the G7’s members are membes of NATO, which also has close ties with the seventh country, Japan.

Truss claimed that the G7 would be “strong in our stance against aggression”.

But the Peace Pledge Union said that NATO and Russia are both behaving aggressively.

“Putin and NATO are mirror images of each other,” said Symon Hill, PPU Campaigns Manager. “They send troops to borders and claim that they are acting defensively against each other. They are like children in a playground saying, ‘He started it!’."

He added, "Militarism anywhere fuels militarism everywhere. In reality, the people of the UK, Russia, Ukraine and the US have more in common with each other than with the rulers who would wage war in our name.”

The PPU criticised Liz Truss for talking about defending “freedom and democracy” when the UK government’s allies include authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia and when NATO members such as Turkey are suppressing free expression and democratic activity.

The Peace Pledge Union is a union of people who have pledged to reject war and to tackle the causes of war. Join us here!