A senior Biden administration official told Politico on Wednesday that the US supports Ukraine striking Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014 but neither Washington nor Kyiv recognize as Russian territory.
The official said the US considers strikes on Ukrainian soil “self-defense,” which applies to Crimea in Washington’s eyes. “We don’t select targets, of course, and everything we’ve provided is for self-defense purposes. Any target they choose to pursue on sovereign Ukrainian soil is by definition self-defense,” the official said.
The comments came after a series of explosions at Russian military facilities in Crimea, including a major one at the Saki air base that reportedly destroyed nine Russian warplanes. Officially, Kyiv hasn’t taken credit for the incidents, but Ukrainian officials have strongly hinted at Ukraine’s involvement.
While the recent incidents appear to be acts of sabotage, Ukrainian officials have said they are preparing to use US-provided weapons, such as HIMARS rocket systems, to attack Crimea. Washington doesn’t want Ukraine using US weapons on Russian territory, but Crimea appears to be fair game since the US considers it Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Wednesday that there are no restrictions on using US-provided weapons on “occupied territories” of Ukraine. “But if we are talking today about the de-occupation of temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine where the enemy is, then, correspondingly, we have no such restrictions,” Reznikov said.
When asked by Antiwar.com if the US ban on Ukraine using US-provided arms on Russian territory applies to Crimea, the State Department replied, “Crimea is Ukraine.
US-backed attacks on Crimea risk provoking Moscow, and Russian officials have made clear that they will view such operations as a major escalation. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, warned in July that Ukrainian attacks on Crimea would mean “doomsday” for Ukrainian leadership.
Medvedev also said the fact that Ukraine and NATO nations don’t recognize Crimea as Russian is a threat to Moscow. “If any state, either Ukraine or a NATO country, thinks that Crimea is not part of Russia, it is a systemic threat to us,” he said.
And speaking of AID to Ukraine — Biden is now poised to launch $800M more $$ to Ukraine — whoosh! $$ heading east! why can’t this evident largesse be targeted west — to the citizens of his OWN country? Fundamentally he believes everyone in flyover country doesn’t actually exist in HIS world whereas extraordinarily PR-d population of Ukraine does. And unlike, say, Yemen, these are “white” folks. So doubly exist.
Without provocation and using US tax dollars, the US regime has illegally annexed one third of Syria, has occupied it for several years, is stealing Syria’s oil from the land, cruelly prevents Syrian’s from using their best farmland. No Syrians are native English speakers, Syria has never been part of the US, no Syrians in the stolen land voted in a referendum that they wished to be an official part of the US. Why hasn’t anyone bombed the US for illegally annexing one third of Syria? In a fully justified response to US regime, why hasn’t anyone annexed one third of the US, including its best farmland?
Well said, Susan! Ten upvotes if I could!
Anything to prolong the war. Fight on till the LAST Ukrainian.
They upped the ante, it is now fight on till the last European.
HIMARS can’t hit Crimea without the long-range 300km missiles, and even if Ukraine gets them, they will likely be shot down by the fairly extensive Crimea AD systems. And the Russian retaliation will be major.
Promote terrorism and fire missiles into a country is a sure way if winning hearts and minds of the people in Crimea it wants to govern. That will work as well as, say, shutting off the water did.
https://journal-neo.org/2022/08/18/whose-grain-is-being-shipped-from-ukraine/
Whose Grain is Being Shipped from Ukraine? William Engdahl.
Our cheapest soldiers are Ukrainian soldiers and Kerensky approves.
President Longshanks:
The problem for the Nazi regime as well as it’s western sponsors is that Crimea (and pretty much half of the ukraine) is predominantly majority Russian. The Nazi regime, of course, has a “final solution” to that. Hence all these regions not accepting the US imposed coup regime and hence the Nazi’s terror regime their since 2014, in order to prevent uprisings from ever happen again.
It seems unlikely that either the US or Ukrainian regime really expects the Ukrainian armed forces to end up taking Crimea from Russia (or for those living in Crimea to suddenly decide they made a mistake going with Russia and ask to be taken back).
Rather than simply assume that the US/Ukrainian regimes are idiots, it’s worth asking what the real purpose of attacking Russian assets in Crimea is.
First, successfully attacking/destroying Russian assets in Crimea makes those assets unavailable for use elsewhere. A plane that gets blown up on the tarmac in Crimea can’t provide air cover over Kherson.
Secondly, successfully attacking/destroying Russian assets in Crimea provides an incentive to redirect assets/resources from other battlespaces to Crimea to thwart subsequent attacks there.
Depending on what kinds of troops and weapons are being used for the attacks in Crimea, those attacks can act as “force multipliers” in the sense that a squad-size element of saboteurs might cause the Russian forces to rob its offensive pushes elsewhere of an infantry battalion to provide airfield security, etc. in Crimea.
This neglects the response.
Escalation always must consider the other side’s escalation in response.
Maybe they don’t give a damn about Crimea, the Biden goal is regime change and a torn down Russia. They want the resources and no multipolar competition. They want to own the whole blue planet all by themselves. It is the first time in history nuclear powers are at war with each other and we have nothing but idiots running the DC asylum, that is scary.
“It is the first time in history nuclear powers are at war with each other”
No, it isn’t. The same nuclear powers have previously conducted proxy wars with each other in, among other places, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
I think the more plausible explanation is that these attacks on Crimea are diversionary propaganda creation moves. Russia is advancing in the Donbas. There was, is, and will be no “Kherson counteroffensive.” Just like there was no “Kharkov counteroffensive” (complete with phony flag plant). Indeed, just like….everything. The Ghost of Kiev. The Middle Finger of Snake Island. The second battle of Snake Island. The loss of one, 40 year old Russian ship. Some potholes on some bridges. An oil refinery blown up. Some Russian villages attacked. And, now, sabotage in Crimea. All BS. All designed not with some strategic or tactical or even operational advantage in mind, but just to generate headlines.
To convince Ukrianians and Europeans and Americans that the Kiev Neo Nazi regime is winning. You might be surprised at how many people really believe this. I look at left, right and center sites. And the consensus on most of them is that the Kiev Neo Nazi regime is doing just fine! Everyday, they are fed reports of Russian tanks, ammo stores, bridges, units, generals, and so on being destroyed, and of the Russian army hungry, demoralized, out of fuel, out of ammo, deserting, fragging their officers, God knows what. Putin is either crazy, dying of cancer, in danger of being overthrown at any moment, or some combination of all three. Etc, etc.
I have never seen such a complete propaganda coup as this one. Even the sale of Nine Eleven as an excuse for not one, but two wars of aggression, was not as slick. Nor did it go as unquestioned. Everything is for media and social media. And it is working. What happens when reality finally hits the propagandized public in the Ukraine, Europe, and the USA in the face? I don’t know. A “who lost China” kind of thing? A “stab in the back” thing? Something worse?
“I have never seen such a complete propaganda coup as this one”
Neither have I. Six months into the two-week job of securing the Donbas, the Russian regime still has you convinced they’re “winning.”
The Russians are advancing in the Donbas every day. (By the way, who said it was a “two week job?” You?) The Ukrainians are not advancing anywhere. The Russians also made significant gains in the south, connecting up Crimea and taking several major cities. None of which the Ukies seem to have any chance of reversing. I’m not sure how that is not Russia winning. And there are multiple credible reports of the Ukrainians forces being woefully out gunned on the front lines. And even Ukranian officials have been saying that they are taking massive casualties. And Russia is not even using most of its troops, whereas the Ukies have called up even their territorial reserves, and keep raising the age for conscription. There is simply no reason at all to believe that the Ukrainians are winning. And yet, as I said, it seems most Westerners are convinced that they are, and will cite the BS, made for propaganda, incidents that I mentioned as the reason to believe.
And, I mean….really? You are seriously going to compare the non stop snow job about every aspect of the conflict that we are getting and have gotten from Kiev, NATO and DC, and the Western MSM, and social media, with whatever feeble propaganda efforts Russia is making? Your both siderism has gotten the better of you!
I’m not a “both siderist.”
I’m a “neither siderist.”
And the proof is in the pudding.
In 2008, the Russian armed forces thoroughly whipped Georgia in a week.
This time, they’ve been fighting for six months and have yet to really even secure/pacify a piece of territory (the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts) that’s smaller than Georgia, and that supposedly has a supportive population aching for liberation.
I do agree that “we’re winning, and the reason we’re not winning is because those big ol’ meanies won’t stop fighting us” is pretty feeble as propaganda goes, though.
Sure, Jan.
They are moving American troops inside Germany, from Stuttgart were the HQ are up to Baumholder closer to Ramstein, and move Special forces, Navy and Seals to Baumholder, at the moment only some 500 but more than 33 000 troops are stationed in Germany already. Germans are beginning to turn against the government.
The number of Crimea sabotage or accidents are aiming to get NATO involved. The nuclear powerplant’s shelling makes no sense either.
It matters not one iota that Amerikkka considers Crimea to be part of Ukrainazia; what matters is that Russia considers it (rightfully) theirs, and the population considers itself part of Russia by popular referendum.
So, go right ahead and bombs away, ZelBoy. The rest of us will be pulling up our chairs around the campfire and roasting marshmallows while we wait for the pretty mushroom clouds to bloom.
By the same token, Russia can strike the ex territory Alaska…!
Does this mean that anyone can attack American bases not on American soil and America will not respond?
Warmongers will support war, I suppose. It’s all a big MIC party until we wipe each other out with nuclear weapons. The hawks can then rebuild civilization with their defense contractor stocks. 🙄
Yuck!
So according the ameircan logic,anyone who defends their nation from american militarism is a terrorist illegally fighting the usa…ARGGHHH
I recently saw that Ukraine is asking for even longer ranged missiles to take out the bridge between Russia and Crimea.
How dare these people in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk defy the will of Emperor Biden? How foolish it would be for anyone to take him at his word.
The attacks on Crimea are just another attempt to extend the duration of the war. But Biden continues to underestimate Russia’s military. And he seems to think that Europeans don’t know who is responsible for the collapse of their own economies.
The only possible response to this by Russia will be to hit back at targets previously considered off limits.
What will that be? Only Putin gets to decide. It will be something the US does not want to happen, by definition.
It is the nature of escalation.
The US acts as if it has “escalation dominance” but it does not.
The goal is to get NATO involved and risk a nuclear war. That sick bunch in Washington can’t think straight.
The Russians know what is happening on the Crimea, they covered up for it because they do not want NATO involved, it will be the end for Europe. The USA is deindustrializing Germany it will also be the end of the EU and the continent will be destroyed. The USA is a devilish hegemon governed by war criminals.
You’d pretty much have to be brain dead not to realize that the U.S. wants a hot war in eastern Europe and the western Pacific. This is pretty much like an aging and declining gunfighter challenging everyone in the bar to a gunfight.
Fantastic analogy!
Just another step towards WWIII. If Americans can’t see what’s really going on in Wash. now, they will when war starts with a draft and massive casualties which will be more dying in vain like all the others did since WWII. How many wars will be fought and lost before Americans put a stop to it? What does the average American get for all the wars? dead Americans and lost treasure is all.
US Approves of Russia Striking US