United States Support for Ukraine Has Reached the Next Level, As American Weapons Can Now be Used Within Russian Territory
The months’ long stalemate in the Russo-Ukrainian War broke slightly for a few days, as a Russian campaign advanced roughly six miles (ten kilometers) into Kharkiv Oblast, but even that has now seemed to slow and come to a halt. However, that short Russian victory provided the West with the opportunity to approve the use of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) weapons to strike inside Russian territory, and of course, immediately after, Ukraine began bombing Russian cities and military targets with American and European weapons as part of a “self-defense” strategy (per NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg). Clearly, though, Russian President Vladimir Putin does not see it the same way, and to him, Western weapons hitting his territory is viewed as a threat and grounds for retaliation (if Russian weapons were being used by al Qaeda or Iranian operatives within American cities, what would our news headlines look like?). When you have two nuclear superpowers with two different perspectives on an issue and engaged in a proxy war, there is always the possibility of a misstep of huge proportions.
France and Poland were among the first to permit the Volodymyr Zelensky regime (now an actual dictatorship, as the Ukrainian government has suspended elections indefinitely to keep the current president in power past his term) to utilize their weapons to hit targets inside of Russian territory, but as anyone watching the conflict and constant flip-flopping (called the “adjust and adapt” strategy) of the Joe Biden administration knows, keeping principled stances against escalating conflict with Russia is not really in the World War III playbook. Therefore, President Biden followed in France’s and Poland’s footsteps and authorized Ukraine to be able to blast targets in Russia, but for now, such strikes are reduced to short-range ones within a reasonable distance from Kharkiv (Germany followed this strategy shortly after, and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that long-range attacks into Russia may soon be on the horizon).
Ukrainian bombs have been hitting near the Russian city of Belgorod throughout much of the war, and in one of the most recent attacks, damage was done to ten civilian apartment buildings (two of which were severely damaged) and two schools. Although this may have been prior to the official authorization by the Biden administration, it is very possible that these attacks on civilians were greenlit by the United States government (or at least France or Poland). Regardless, we can now confirm that the Ukrainian attack against Belgorod Oblast (in Russia) on June 1, which eliminated a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery, included American taxpayer-funded weapons (likely the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS), and as I have written previously, American intelligence has been directing the Ukrainian military on which targets to hit. Although it is difficult to sympathize with the Russian government (though we can do so with the civilians in Belgorod) since it launched an invasion of Ukraine (and has hit Ukrainian civilian areas), we may now have an escalating situation that brings the United States closer to a hot war with Russia because of the irresponsible actions of the Biden administration.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian military has said that it was able to destroy a Su-57 stealth jet roughly 366 miles (589 kilometers) from the battlefield (at Akhtubinsk base in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia), and it has hit civilian targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg (one such recent attack in that city destroyed a gas terminal). Roughly twenty-five people were killed when the Ukrainian military bombed the Kherson (including a grocery store in Sadove) and Luhansk Oblasts (now claimed by Russia), and although it is unclear whether or not NATO has been actively involved in any of these incidents (there is no evidence of this yet), we should be aware that covert operations and sabotage missions inside of Russia and the Donbass are being conducted by the West (particularly at the direction of the United States). To be clear, it is not justified for the Russian government to claim the lives of Ukrainians or destroy that country’s infrastructure either, but our taxpayer dollars are not being used to do so (they are being used to support Ukrainian actions and engage Russia, however).
If all of this were not bad enough, Cold War II is developing to have its very own Cuban Missile Crisis. For years, the United States has been building its missile systems in Poland and Romania (claimed as defensive in nature by NATO, but Russia believes that they can be converted to offensive systems), as well as storing nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey; and Russia has installed Kinzhal hypersonic and Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad (Russian territory in between the NATO states of Poland and Lithuania), as well as initiated the process to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. In response to the West’s approval of Ukraine to use weapons inside of Russian territory, President Vladimir Putin has threatened that his government may start to position long-range missiles in countries that are enemies of the United States and its allies, perhaps including Syria, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, or North Korea.
Additionally, Russia has begun tactical nuclear exercises with Belarus and is sending naval warships and bombers to the Caribbean Sea to conduct drills in Venezuela and Cuba (recall that parts of Cuba are roughly ninety miles from Florida). With American warships (the CG Stone coastguard vessel, USS Truxtun and USS Donald Cook destroyers, P-8A Poseidon, and Canadian CP-140 Aurora and HMCS Ville de Quebec frigate) “shadowing” the Russian ships and submarines sailing along the Florida coast toward Cuba, what could go wrong?
The United States also engaged in its own Baltic Sea exercises (BALTOPS 24), which included fifty NATO warships and twenty-five aircraft, near the Russian border in Lithuania, Sweden, Poland, and Germany; and although such drills are not uncommon and have not sparked conflicts in the past (escalated tensions but not started a hot war), both countries see their enemies’ actions as a threat. Though we should not be fearful, we should take this seriously and try to understand how a potential upcoming World War III is being forced upon us, even though it could all be avoided with sound diplomacy (that would not, however, benefit the powers that be or the defense contractors and politicians).
As the Biden administration pushes for Ukraine to join NATO, Democrats and hawkish Republicans wave their Ukrainian (not American) flags in congressional sessions, and the Ukrainian government kidnaps people to fight in its military, politicians and the corporate media continue to push the pro-Ukrainian propaganda and sell American tax dollars being used to “save democracy” in Europe (similar to the weapons of mass destruction argument used to justify the American invasion of Iraq). We are in dangerous times, as one false move or misunderstanding can ignite the fragile state of geopolitics and cause a series of unstoppable conflicts, but if the people stand up to the madness, we can demand that our government halt its imperial policies and aggressiveness toward Russia and China and others. After all, the elites need us, the common folk, to fight the wars on their behalf.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.