U.S. President Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire American long-range missiles deep within Russian territory. Russia says the move is an escalation of the war, while Donald Trump’s allies believe the decision undermines the president-elect’s attempts to bring an end to the conflict.
Biden had previously hesitated to authorise such a move, out of fear that it would provoke Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than two-and-a-half years ago. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently revised his country’s nuclear doctrine to deter the West from allowing Ukraine to use their long-range ballistic missiles against targets inside Russia.
The official explanation given by sources close to the White House says Biden’s decision was made to counter Moscow’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces. Around 12,000 North Koreans have been sent to Russia and most of them have moved to the western Kursk region, a part of which was occupied by Ukrainian forces in August. Ukraine says it has already clashed with some of those North Korean troops.
Kyiv says the ability to fire long-range Western missiles into Russian territory would change the trajectory of the war. According to military analysts, Russian troops, which have occupied about a fifth of Ukrainian territory—including the Crimean peninsula, which they annexed ten years ago—are making slow but steady advances in eastern Ukraine.
The ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) can strike targets 300 kilometres away. The Ukrainians could use them to strike Russian and North Korean troop concentrations, key pieces of military equipment, logistics junctions, ammunition depots, and supply lines deep inside Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that he is “deeply grateful to all our partners who support us with air defence systems and missiles,” and that “the missiles will speak for themselves.” Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, according to sources who spoke to Reuters.
Moscow has reacted with anger to Washington’s decision. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the outgoing Biden administration was adding fuel to the fire and seeking to escalate the conflict.
If such a decision has indeed been formulated and communicated to the Kyiv regime, then, of course, this is a qualitatively new round of escalation of tensions and a qualitatively new situation in terms of the involvement of the United States in this conflict.
Russian lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov went even further by stating that “this is a very big step towards the start of World War Three.” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of Russia’s upper chamber of parliament warned that “the West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning.”
Donald Trump’s allies are also enraged and believe Biden’s decision to allow the use of U.S. missiles undermines Trump, who was reelected as U.S. President and is set to enter the White House in January. He has promised to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible and has hinted that Kyiv would have to cede some of its territory to Russia in order to achieve peace.
But an escalation of the war before his time comes would definitely make it harder to negotiate a peace deal.
The President-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted:
The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives.
Richard Grenell, the former Director of National Intelligence during the previous Trump presidency, said Biden is “escalating the wars before he leaves office.”
David Sacks, a Silicon Valley investor and Trump supporter, accused Biden of trying to hand the incoming commander-in-chief “the worst situation possible.”
President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?
Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister of the conservative Hungarian government, a close ally of Trump and one of the few advocates for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine, said “war-driven politicians, removed from power, are refusing to acknowledge” the choice of the electorate, who voted for peace-oriented and patriotic politicians.
His comments contrast the words of the more hawkish European leaders. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, whose country has been one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters, said allowing missiles to be fired into Russia is “a language that V. Putin understands.”
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said he hopes EU members will follow suit.
