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Introduction – Nov 18, 2024

The Biden administration has just reversed an earlier decision and given Ukraine the go-ahead to use ATACMS missiles on targets inside Russia.

Coming in the closing months of the Biden administration, the decision will leave a bitter legacy. With the prospects of negotiations now being seriously considered by both sides the revised ATACMS decision will:

  • Further antagonize the Russians, and
  • Make it more difficult for Trump to negotiate a settlement without appearing to cave in to Moscow.

What motivated this decision? Was it pure spite?

Either way it is a fitting end to a presidency that was won by fraud and that will surely go down in history as one of the least popular and most incompetent on record. Ed.

Biden trying to escalate situation ‘to the maximum’ with missile decision, Russian lawmaker says

The Guardian – Nov 18, 2024

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina has said that the administration of President Joe Biden was risking a third world war if it allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.

“These guys, Biden’s administration, is trying to escalate the situation to the maximum while they still have power and are still in office,” said Butina, who was jailed in the US for 18 months in 2019 after she tried to infiltrate US conservative groups and the National Rifle Association to promote Russian political interests around the 2016 election. She is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party.

“I have a great hope that [Donald] Trump will overcome this decision if this has been made because they are seriously risking the start of World War Three which is not in anybody’s interest,” she told Reuters.

Biden on Sunday reversed a ban on the firing of long-range US missiles into Russian territory by permitting them to be used against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region. The US president will allow Ukraine to use US-made Atacms rockets, which have a range of 190 miles (300km) .

President Vladimir Putin said on 12 September that western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of Nato countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because Nato military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.

In late October, Putin said that Russia’s defence ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its Nato allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.

“I guess there are some people in the United States who have nothing to lose for whatever reason or who are completely off the grid so much that they simply do not care,” said Butina.

In other developments:

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared to confirm the news of the US policy reversal, though he said any proof about the change in policy would emerge on the battlefield, if and when the missiles are used. “Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will,” Zelenskyy said.

 

Continues …