Pentagon Gave Tacit Endorsement of Ukrainian Attacks Inside Russian Territory
Jose Nino
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According to a report by The Times released on December 9, 2022, the Pentagon gave a tacit endorsement of Ukrainian attacks inside of Russian territory.
The The Times report cited anonymous United States defense officials who no longer fear that such maneuvers could provoke a fierce Russian response.
Dave DeCamp noted that “The US position appears to only be based on the fact that up to this point, Russia hasn’t responded to attacks on its territory with nuclear weapons or by attacking NATO countries.”
The Times report stated the following: “Moscow’s revenge attacks have to date all involved conventional missile strikes against civilian targets. Previously, the Pentagon was warier of Ukraine attacking Russia because it feared the Kremlin would retaliate either with tactical nuclear weapons or by targeting neighboring NATO nations.”
This report was published in the aftermath of Ukrainian drone attacks that struck Russian air bases deep inside of Russian territory, which included one that killed three Russian soldiers and damaged two Russian bombers. After the attacks, the Russians responded with a barrage of missile attacks directed against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Russia started targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in October following the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, a key piece of instructure that links Crimea to the Russian mainland. American officials have previously stated that they back Ukrainian attacks on Crimea.
Per The Times report, the US doesn’t want to publicly endorse Ukrainian attacks inside Russia. Publicly speaking, US officials have stated that they are not “encouraging” or “enabling” Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory. However, a defense official said that Ukraine is still calling the shots as far as where it will attack and that it has little restrictions on using US-supplied weapons.
“We’re not saying to Kyiv, ‘Don’t strike the Russians [in Russia or Crimea].’ We can’t tell them what to do. It’s up to them how they use their weapons,” the official stated. “But when they use the weapons we have supplied, the only thing we insist on is that the Ukrainian military conform to the international laws of war and to the Geneva conventions.”
The aforementioned comments represent a change in US policy in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The Biden regime previously wanted to acquire “assurances” from Ukraine that it wouldn’t use the HIMARS rocket launch systems to strike Russian territory. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby previously made similar remarks.
“When we give them a weapon system, it belongs to them, where they use it, how they use it, how much ammunition they use to use that system. I mean, those are Ukrainian decisions, and we respect that,” Kirby stated.
At the present, there has been no public confirmation of Ukraine using US weapons to hit targets inside Russian territory. Russian authorities claimed that Ukraine used modified Soviet-era drones to launch the attacks last week. These attacks struck Russian air bases several hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border.
However, The Times report stated that with the US now tacitly supporting Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, the Biden regime will be more receptive to supplying longer-range weapons that Ukraine has long desired. “Nothing is off the table,” a senior US official declared.
Russian officials have issued stern warnings about the US supplying longer-range weapons to Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg conceded on December 9 that there’s a “real possibility” of a war kicking off between the Western alliance and Russia. Such a conflict could turn nuclear if Russia believes that it’s facing an existential threat or it feels that its territorial integrity is threatened. Nevertheless, Stoltenberg maintained that the West should continue arming Ukraine to the teeth despite the risk of nuclear war.
Those are the stakes in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Unfortunately, DC policymakers don’t understand these risks and believe that they can just make risky geopolitical moves without serious consequences. Such arrogance can prove to be deadly on the world stage.
Only America First nationalists, who believe in foreign policy realism and restraint, can avoid such a disastrous fate for the US.
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