Let’s Identify Those Who Want War, Not Peace
A very important question today is — who wants the Iran-USA-Israel-Lebanon war to continue and who wants the Russia-Ukraine war to continue
A very important question today is — who wants the Iran-USA-Israel-Lebanon war to continue and who wants the Russia-Ukraine war to continue, despite the extremely high distress these wars have caused and the even higher dangers they pose if prolonged?
President Trump made a very serious mistake in attacking Iran and he made this worse with highly objectionable comments like the one on destroying a civilization. Nevertheless, as the situation stands today on June 3 at the time of writing this, the available evidence tells us that Trump wants the war to end with a face-saving deal, something which experienced diplomats on both sides can clinch if there are no disruptors.
Unfortunately, disruptors are very much there. Disruptor number one is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who has been a habitually aggressive but also seeks glory in territorial gains of Greater Israel at the expense of Palestinians and others. He also has very narrow personal reasons to continue war, including avoiding facing corruption and other charges and going to jail. Other equally (and some even more) senior members of his coalition play a similar role of disrupting peace.
In the USA the Israeli lobby carries this disruptive role further. Due to its influence, power and money, many politicians are pushed towards promoting aggression towards Iran and its allies. In addition the military-industrial complex plays a more permanent role favoring wars over peace, drawing in many think tanks, media outlets and politicians as well into supporting this war-mongering.
In Russia some of the most hawkish elements have called for using nuclear weapons to end the war with Ukraine soon, or to stop some European countries from extending increasing military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine. While this military assistance (which was earlier coming more from USA but now is coming mainly from some European countries) has been highly dangerous and provocative, particularly when this led to an attack on one part of the Russian nuclear triad, nevertheless the recent call for responding with nuclear weapons made by some hawkish elements in Russia should be firmly rejected as due to the unacceptably high destruction caused by nuclear weapons these should never be used. Hence the hawkish elements who gave this call must also be identified as unduly aggressive and their role in policy should be curbed.
A wider question is whether President Putin wants peace. One must remember that he tried to avoid the invasion till a very late stage, sending peace proposals. Again, just a few weeks after the invasion he opted for peace talks which reached a very advanced stage in Istanbul till these were sabotaged by the west. Even now I think that he wants peace, but on terms that would be acceptable to the Russian people who want to see some significant gain achieved after the loss of many lives. He wants to ensure that Ukraine does not become a center of forces hostile to Russia and that it is not used for attacks against Russia. If he can avoid a prolonged and wider war, he would certainly do so. He would like to avoid a wider European war and a nuclear war as much as he can, but when pushed too much and close to an existential crisis, then nothing can be ruled out as his first commitment is to protect Russia. Many European countries continuously acting together against Russia to inflict more and more harm can push him towards a wider war.
A more complex situation is that of Ukraine and its ruling elites. As Ukraine has suffered very grave harm and already lost effective control over about 20% of its territory and about 10 million people are displaced, normally one would hope to find Ukraine yearning for peace, but as the war-realities have been different, we need to examine more closely those forces within the ruling elites who want war more than peace (or friendly relations) with Russia.
One group is that of neo-Nazis known for their extreme hostility to Russia. They have become very powerful in Ukraine during the war years. In a recent article titled ‘Ukraine’s military has a real Nazi problem’ published in Responsible Statecraft or RS (June 2, 2026) Marta Havryshko has written, “Neo-Nazi networks are deeply embedded in parts of Ukraine’s military structure. Their presence is visible in units such as Azov, the Third Assault Brigade, the Russia Voluntary Corps, Bratstvo, the German Volunteer Corps, Kartpatska Sich and others.
Yet Ukraine’s western backers continue to arm, fund and train these units without meaningful scrutiny…Official Ukrainian military channels and mainstream media regularly publish images of soldiers wearing swastikas, Waffen-SS insignia, and patches linked to neo-Nazi groups like Combat 18 and Misanthropic Division…Some Ukrainian military units have incorporated Nazi linked symbols into their official insignia.”
During the war-years 2022-26, the presence of Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine has been continuously strengthened, and has received increasing official recognition, acceptance and help as well as access to more dangerous weapons including those supplied by western countries. Leading western donors have quietly accepted all this.
Another factor is the massive and increasing corruption a big share of which falls into the hands of those who are most powerful, or close to the most powerful. Several officials close to top ruling elites including President Zelensky have been indicted for corruption. During April 20-27, 2026, the Kiev International Institute of Sociology conducted a poll which asked the people of Ukraine whether Ukraine is more threatened by corruption than by Russia. 54% replied that Ukraine is more threatened by corruption, while 39% replied that Ukraine is more threatened by Russia. (Source-article by Ted Snider titled ‘Poll: Ukrainians are threatened by corruption rather than by Russia’, published in RS, May 2026.
War and military aid and wartime lack of accountability increases the prospects of corruption. Hence the most corrupt want the war to continue. War also delays elections. For this reason some of the ruling elites prefer war to peace.
This is further confirmed by the brutal methods raised to recruit fighters for a war the majority of people want to end. As Branko Marcetic reported on May 13, 2026 in an article published in RS titled ‘Ukraine’s conscription crisis is getting increasingly bloody’–Last year (in 2025) Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman labeled it a coercive system; complaints against enlistment officers with the Territorial Recruitment Centers had exploded by 33000%, from 18 in 2022 to over 6000 in 2025. More than 600 attacks on enlistment officers have taken place since the war started. Ukraine’s defense minister stated in 2025 that there were 2 million draft dodgers and about 200,000 cases of desertions.
Hence it is not the people of Ukraine who want to continue the war, it is the Neo-Nazis who have been strengthened with the war, and the highly powerful corrupt elites—sometimes the two merge—who are likely to constitute the core of the pro-war group.
Another question is whether President Trump wants this war to end. Both in his campaign for the second presidency and in his early actions after becoming President, Trump revealed a strong desire for this war to end. However his efforts were not planned adequately to achieve peace. Another highly disrupting factor was that the USA’s European allies did not support the efforts for peace, and to this day they have continued to support and instigate Ukraine in its hostility towards Russia, turning a blind eye even to the strengthening of neo-Nazi forces which after the end of this war can spread to other parts of the world, particularly Europe, like the mujahidin groups supported by the USA did after the Russian army left Afghanistan.
As long as very powerful persons, groups, lobbyists and interest groups want wars to continue and they continue to oppose and sabotage peace efforts it becomes more difficult to end wars and to bring peace. Hence war mongers should be exposed and weakened, or else wherever this is possible they should be engaged in meaningful discussion so that they realize the extreme dangers of their war-mongering and agree to step back.
[The writer, Bharat Dogra, is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include A Day in 2071 and Planet in Peril. His website is bharatdogra.in and his YouTube channel is Bharat Dogra Save Earth Campaign.]
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