By David Sole
Major U.S. news outlets reported on November 17 that a major reversal in U.S. policy toward Ukraine has taken place. In a dangerous escalation in the U.S./NATO proxy war by Ukraine against the Russian Federation, President Joe Biden has reportedly given Ukraine the OK to use U.S. supplied long range missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory.
Until now U.S. supplied missiles have been restricted for use inside Ukraine or the territory held by Ukraine prior to Russia’s Special Military Operation launched in February 2022. Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been asking for authority to launch missiles into Russia for many months.
Long range ATACMS missiles have been provided to Ukraine by the U.S. along with almost $200 billion in short range missiles, artillery, tanks, armored personnel carriers and other weaponry. The U.K. and European Union have also supplied enormous quantities of military hardware over the past two plus years. These weapons have regularly been used by Ukraine, but their use has been limited. On August 6, 2024, Ukraine sent tens of thousands of troops and a large stock of heavy weapons directly into the Kursk province of Russia, where remnants of these forces are still fighting.
This new authorization by Biden is a dangerous escalation of the level of conflict that may have serious consequences. Months ago, when the Western news media was widely reporting that this new rule was being considered, Russia’s President Putin warned against it in the most serious tone.
Though the U.S. media barely reported the warning, Putin explained that Ukrainian military personnel were not capable of accessing the targeting satellites nor launching the ATACMS into Russia. That would require highly trained U.S. specialized troops. Putin warned that this would put the United States and NATO in “a state of war” with Russia.
President Elect Donald Trump is set to take office on January 20, 2025. Throughout his campaign he has promised to “end the Ukraine war overnight.” It is probable that the neocons around Biden, the architects of the 2014 right-wing coup in Ukraine who continued through the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations to build up the Ukraine military and who planned for Ukraine to fight Russia; it is probable that this ruling class grouping wants to make sure the Ukraine war escalates and keeps Trump from trying to end that war.
Even if use of ATACMS for deep penetration into Russia doesn’t provoke retaliation by Russia against U.S. or NATO targets in Europe, they will not change the course of the war. The New York Times admitted as much in its November 17 report that U.S. “officials said they do not expect the shift to fundamentally alter the course of the war.” Other officials around Biden, it was reported, “said they thought those fears [of Russian retaliation] were overblown.”
The Times also gave the reason for the escalation of U.S. tactics as being in response to Russia’s using soldiers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in fighting Ukraine troops currently in Russia’s Kursk province. Although the Western media has repeated this assertion endlessly for the past few months, none of the reports cite any evidence of this at all. Even if true, Russia and the DPRK have a reciprocal military treaty which would permit each coming to the other’s aid.
On the Ukraine battlefields Russia continues to steadily advance while Ukraine defenses rapidly crumble. In the northeast sector Russian forces are at the very gates of the city of Kupyansk which had a population of about 27,000 before the war. Some reports indicate that fighting has begun inside the city.
Russian troops also continue to surround the key military hub of Pokrovsk in the southwest Donetsk People’s Republic. When it falls, as expected by most military analysts, the Russian army will have a fairly clear way open all the way to the Dnieper River.
Not all U.S. allies agree with this new escalation. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated at a meeting of EU foreign ministers “Our position on the use of weapons by Ukraine does not change, they can only be used inside Ukrainian territory.”
NATO member Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico complained that “This is an unprecedented escalation of tensions” that will only “frustrate and delay” any peace talks. He added that the U.S. “wants the war in Ukraine to continue at any cost.”
The German Defense Minister told the press that Chancellor Olaf Scholz would not “lift his ban on sending Taurus air-launched missiles to Kiev.” Scholz does not want to “make Germany a direct party to the conflict.”
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