Yes, but Ukraine was already in a civil conflict where bands of fascists were literally roaming around and killing people they perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be dissidents, specifically labor dissidents. So you are fundamentally incorrect that 'Life for the working class would not be fundamentally different under Russia or Ukraine'. You are literally starting from a false premise here.
On the one hand, you have a government that is totally fine with letting literal Nazi revisionists threaten you and your family for doing stuff like speaking your native language, and on the other side which, well, despite it's also crushing capitalistic tendencies, corruption etc, etc. just isn't doing that. I'd call that a significant material difference. That being said, that doesn't matter too much now, everybody is pretty fucked long term.
It is. But it is a right-wing gangster state where roaming bands of Nazi apologists aren't literally killing people outside of your town for speaking Russian. That's a pretty substantial difference for the working class.
That being said, despite what you hear, I'd say that overall working conditions in Russia are better these days than say, most of the American south? In fact, it kinda mimics the American South in terms of what kind of industries are developed there, with the exception of a million Dollar Generals. Not that that is saying much, but pretending Russia is somehow unique here is telling. Ukraine is the odd duck out here because it made most of the implicit right-wing violence in the system explicit. Hence why it has been in a civil conflict since 2014.
The rise of fascism on Germany leading up to WW2 is a direct result of the first world war, if I'm remembering correctly what I read.
Or is war more likely to happen in the same conditions that fascism thrives in?
I dunno, but the about face the US public made after Truman dropped the bomb and the McCarthy persecution they pivoted to hating communists and gladly went to war in Korea pretty quickly. You can't tell me that the pro war propaganda during WW2 didn't prime the pump for the about face from hating Nazis to hating communists.
