WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a significant change to Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.
The move by the United States two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine's military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.
The change follows Russia's deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv.
The first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.
I get that .ml is a Chinese-based server full of anti-west sentiments, but you guys have to recognize that the resolution to not strike Russian land itself is completely ridiculous, right?
Russia is waging total war on Ukraine. Other countries have been supplying arms under the premise of self defense, but the idea that one side of a war isn't allowed to be aggressive is straight up propaganda.
The "peace talks" that are coming are going to involve total surrender of Russian claimed land on Ukraine's part.
Somehow augmenting Russian defense forces with foreign armies is just poor old Russia reacting to a sucker punch while augmenting Ukraine's is tantamount to starting ww3.
The idea that Ukraine can't use foreign aid to strike back only really makes sense if you believe Ukraine owes Russia land in the first place. Otherwise, regardless of what side you're on, it's just walking on eggshells about escalation when the only one actually escalating anything is Russia.
The craziest thing of our time is that right-wing bigots claim to end the war fast with peace talks, while so-called “progressives” are going to prolong their proxy war as long as there is at least one Ukrainian still alive.
End the war fast by giving up land, and the people on that land. If you know anything about history Ukrainians under Russian rule is a completely unacceptable outcome to anyone but complete psychopaths.
Spoken like someone who clearly has zero knowledge of actual history. Especially considering a large part of the reason why the coup government in Ukraine began their campaign of ethnically cleansing the eastern population of their own country was because the people living there more strongly identified with Russia, wanted to be able to keep speaking Russian without persecution, and eventually pleaded with Russia to intervene on their behalf, which Russia fortunately did. But anyone who actually understands the history of the region is a "psychopath." lol
One interesting explanation from Mohammed Mirandi was the establishment wants to escalate as much as possible to prevent Russia from accepting de escalation when Trump comes to power without major concessions from Ukraine.
If this is true, this is an act of absolute insanity on the part of Biden admin. This would be an act of war from Russian perspective. Russians repeatedly stated that these weapons can only be operated by NATO personnel, and the use of these weapons would mean direct attack by NATO on Russia. Furthermore, since tomahawks can carry a nuclear pay load, the launches of these missiles will be viewed as a nuclear attack. Russians aren't gonna wait and see whether a nuclear capable missile actually had a nuke payload or not before they respond.
The only previous red line Russia actually outlined was Ukraine joining NATO, and when that line was crossed the war started. All these other "red lines" were made up by western propagandists and don't actually come from Russia.
I wonder how long it will take you to regret this after the electrical infrastructure attacks and foreign military involvement/weapons trading from Russia escalate again.