Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, warned Sunday that Russia would consider a US-backed Ukrainian strike on Crimea as serious as an attack on the Russian mainland.
Antonov’s comments came in response to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan saying the US wouldn’t stop Ukraine from using American-provided weapons on Crimea, a statement that came after President Biden signed off on European countries delivering F-16s to Kyiv.
Sullivan told CNN that “Crimea is Ukraine” despite the peninsula being under Russian control since 2014. “We have not placed limitations on Ukraine being able to strike on its territory within its internationally recognized borders,” Sullivan said. “What we have said is that we will not enable Ukraine with US systems, Western systems, to attack Russia. And we believe Crimea is Ukraine.”
Not restricting Ukrainian attacks on Crimea has been the US position throughout the war. In July 2022, when asked by Antiwar.com if the ban on Ukraine using the HIMARS rocket systems to target Russian territory applies to Crimea, the State Department replied, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
Antonov said that the US’s “unconditional approval of strikes on Crimea” and the provision of F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine “once again make it clear that the US has never been interested in peace.” He said Russia will view strikes on Crimea “as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation” and said the US should consider a potential Russian response.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks on Crimea are a “red line” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. But other US officials have declared that the US supports Ukraine striking Crimea, including Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.
Diplomats have their job but definitely not all their comments are newsworthy. Crimea was attacked many times. Sometimes quite successfully. We remember the disruption of traffic over Crimean bridge. No reason to expect that anything will change until the war is over. More worrying is providing Kiev regime with weapon systems which can be successfully used against Zaporozhie nuclear power plant. The plant was attacked many times already and there is a possibility of a serious ecological disaster.
Russia’s response to the attack on the Crimean bridge should have convinced somebody that attacks on Crimea cross a red line. They immediately took out much of Ukraine’s power grid.
I worry that the leadership in Kyev doesn’t understand the consequences of attacking the Zaporozhie nuclear power plant. A disaster there hurts Ukraine far more than it hurts Russia because they want to recover the plant for commercial use (which won’t happen if it is damaged), and because it’s very likely that the radiation would destroy life and property located in the areas that they themselves control.
Zaporozhie oblast now is a part of Russian Federation. Most likely, Dnepropetrovsk oblast, which is located west of Zaporozhie, also will join Russia. That’s why Ukrainian/NATO artillery attacked Zaporozhie nuclear power plant so persistently.
I’m not following your argument. I agree that the Zaporozhie oblast was annexed by Russia. I agree that it’s possible that the Dnepropetrovsk oblast could join Russia. But I don’t see how attacking the plant at Enerhodar would accomplish anything other than make the area toxic to both sides.
Blind rage might explain an attack. I can visualize how some nitwit might think they could retake the plant without triggering a catastrophe. I could even see how Ukraine forces might attack the plant without realizing the danger of exposing the fuel rods. But I have never understood why Ukraine would think it could achieve any long term military gains by damaging the facility, even if they regained physical control of the plant.
Russia’s ineffectual response to the Kerch Bridge attack presumably convinced somebody that Russia’s “red lines” are just tantrums that need not be paid any attention to.
That’s probably the wrong conclusion to draw. There probably ARE actual “red lines” that could provoke some kind of effectual response.
On the other hand, jumping around yelling “RED LINE! PROVOKED!” every time someone flushes a toilet in Peoria without first calling the local TV station to announce that Crimea is part of Russia, etc., but not actually doing anything about it, makes it easy to draw that conclusion.
Interesting that you would choose the word “ineffectual”. Taking down Ukraine’s grid took down Ukraine’s ability to use electric trains to move troops, munitions, and equipment. At the time, half of all of their trains ran on electricity. This had immediate consequences on the battlefield.
It also severely disrupted Ukraine’s ability to sell electricity (an estimated 250 Megawatts per hour) to Europe.
It was hit on October 8 – and there were almost daily Russian missile strikes from 11’th to the 31’st of October, what catastrophes for the Russian army were averted between October 8 and mid November when there obviously was a need for more strikes?
Is it your claim that they would have been encircled in Kherson?
My claim is that Ukraine couldn’t get critical assets to where they were needed in a timely fashion. I don’t pretend to know which plans were disrupted, only that some were. (and I wouldn’t share them if I did.)
No your claim was:
But you are now completely unable to back up your claim with any actual consequences on the battlefield. Always good to know what you claim and which parts of these claims you can back up.
Nice try
Are you disputing that you claimed what I quoted, or suggesting that it was supposed be understood in a different way?
There will come a day when you need to go somewhere and your car won’t start. Although I have no way of knowing what you had planned to do, I am quite confident that it will have immediate consequences upon your plans for the day.
Sure that could be, but we have absolutely no evidence that the Ukrainians had planned any ‘trips’ anywhere in the fall of 2022 – and we have a lot of evidence to suggest that Ukraine had not – they were as it happened already deeply engaged in an offensive in Kherson.
But sure lets assume that the immediate effect on the battlefield of the October bombing prevented the Ukrainians from… what?
Is it that you think they had a realistic possibility to take the rest of Luhansk?
Or to put it in different words if you claim it had direct and immediate consequences on the battlefield – you have to be able to point to something more concrete than it spoiled plans they might have had, of which we know nothing.
So, so far it is you who deserve the ‘Nice try’ comment – not me.
Because there is no leadership in Kiev. It’s an occupied territory. Decisions are made by the parasites in Washington and London.
Maybe the intention is to bring this war near a nuclear redline to force Russia for a peace plan.
Russia doesn’t Bluff. There is no other mission for the F16’s other than attack Russia. So this is a massive threat to Russia. At some point the missiles will land in homeland US in retaliation.
Today we had US military equipment and US mercenaries in Belgorod, killing Russian civilians. The Russian people are screaming for Putin to do something. Not against Ukraine but NATO and the head of the snake.
Killing civilians was NATO’s retaliation for the defeat in Artemovsk.
Agree on some points.
The first thing that occurred to me after the attack on Belgorod was that it was done to finesse Russia into moving troops away from other areas. That would weaken the other areas, and it would help determine where such reinforcements are currently located. But you could be exactly right. It could have been simple revenge.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell what actions are motivated by a strategy, and what actions are just opportunistic or “home front propaganda” purposes.
I suspect that this was something of a mix. Attacks on Russian “motherland” territory are good propaganda, AND they motivate the Russians to allocate more resources to defending that territory, which means fewer resources are available elsewhere.
Of course the Russians could reciprocate in kind and would be justified in doing so.
Yes, Kremlin is preparing the population for nuclear war with Anglo-American empire. That way they will be cheering when nukes drop on Washington and London.
If that is the case, that is a disastrous plan! Playing a game of chicken with the Russians is like playing it with a freight train.
Maybe the west is betting that Russia will value their lives more than the western countries, and back down at the last second. Then again, the west has left behind blunder after another. All those attacks on developing countries has made the west stupid and extremely arrogant.
At the rate that Zelensky is going through supplies which is akin to a drunken sailor on shore leave – these F16 don’t stand a snowflakes chance of landing in a hot hell which incidentally appears to be the direction that the Zionist controlled Neocons always intended.
I smell a rat – does anyone else smell a rat?
After all the funds that have been ”allocated” on this highly expensive equipment it makes absolutely no sense to give it away to a lost cause such as Zelinsky the Zionist – yes he intends to remodel Ukraine on the Israely apartheid state and where Russian citizens will have lesser rights – [remember it was forbidden to even speak Russian.]
Someone has used some leverage for EU nations to send their precious F16’s to Ukraine instead of the US as that would give the game away.
Who’s going to fly them anyway?
Ending world hunger requires 300 Billion while Zelensky the Zionist who campaigned on promises of peace is asking for 40 to 60 F16’s which cost anything up to 60M depending on the model.
Where’s my calculator?
I see you have an undeserved downvote, Southern. Hasbara Jake must be lurking.
A downvote ! Argg!!!
Guess he didn’t like the fact that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source – specially when it comes to Julian Assange.
“remember, in my imagination, it was forbidden to even speak Russian”
Fixed, no charge.
It was forbidden to teach in the schools in Russian, or for government paperwork to be printed or filled out in Russian. Both of which are bad enough without pretending that it was forbidden to speak Russian.
The Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies – https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-anti-anti-semitism-follies?publication_id=298057&post_id=124362929&isFreemail=true
The settling dust from WWIII looks good for eating because there will nothing left to consume
For a clean glowing pearly white teeth. Try Rad-dirt chock full of Vitamins and radiation.
Well the Globalists plan for us to eat bugs, might be the only thing left afterwards. Roaches, rats and other repulsive critters.
Including Victoria Nuland! WOW! Really??? Holy Crap. War’s very own Prostitute.
The pussy editor strikes again. No wonder we are a nation that seeks wars wherever we can conjure them up. Even our spell checker is a member of PNAC. What a joke Disqus is. Artificial intelligence my Arse.
Even our spell checker is a member of PNAC
OMG sir you are the man!
The world needs to pay attention to what Victoria says, after all she is really in charge, Biden is her proxy.
Well I see my edited comment was removed. So what can I say? Screw Disqus and the idjits who run/wrote it.
You must have used a trigger word. Wish they give us the full list.
Right on Bear. I can no longer access my previous posts on Dis-gust-us and I believe Southern has the same issue…anyone else?
the US has not placed limitations on Ukraine’s use of American weapons on Crimea
and there it is right there you stupid M-Fs.
why even 9 years later is the US still menacing the Crimea ?
WTF is wrong with you uncle sam ? – pull your head out.
the entire war between Russia & Ukraine is all about Crimea.
every other aspect of the conflict including gas, oil & grain is a BS distraction.
what
In addition to the war being about Crimea, it is also about the future looting of Ukraine by the bankers, BlackRock, and American Companies.
Said it before Putin should take out all the ports , air ports , rail and road systems and hit all NATO supplied weapons , Putin has left it to long already allowing the build up of NATO weapons , this was and is a US /UK inspired war with all the NATO LACKEYS in tow , time to take off the kid gloves Vlad .
There seems to be a huge mismatch between what you think Putin should do and what Putin is capable of doing.
Same goes for Zelensky and Biden.
Obviously Putin and Russia can do a lot more than he/they are. The CONSEQUENCES of those actions and the reluctance to engage in those actions, isn’t the same as the CAPABILITY of engaging in those actions. Russia could wipe out every NATO base in Europe. Russia could also use nukes. That isn’t being done because of the CONSEQUENCES.
You also underestimate the Russian conventional military. While the Ukrainians can get the western nations to supply weapons, at the burn rate of military age Ukrainians, there aren’t going to be enough bodies to employ those weapons. As horrible as the tactic is, that does appear to be the Russian plan.
For 15 months, every time the Russian forces have failed to achieve their objectives, or abandoned their objectives after achieving them, or taken eight months to achieve a one-week objective, there’s suddenly a new thing that “has always been the Russian plan.”
It’s gonna turn around!
Any day now!
Because SPECIAL MAGIC RUSSIA HAS A PLAN THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE PLAN EVEN WHEN I WAS SAYING SOMETHING ELSE WAS THE PLAN!
Concentrate of what OUR PLAN along with our NATO LACKEYS is. After 2014, it looks like OUR PLAN is somewhat off-track. After we won’t supply tanks, and we won’t supply aircraft, or anti-missile batteries, what next? Tactical nukes?
I have neither a plan nor any lackeys, NATO or otherwise. Are you applying for the job?
So you are claiming NATO, you seem to insinuate I included you with the NATO LACKEYS. You seem to be the expert on SPECIAL PLANS.
Wow. You were privy to the Russian plan? Who knew?
No. You were told by Western “experts” what the Russian plan was. Then you claimed that plan didn’t work according to a timetable that was made up by these ” experts”.
“Wow. You were privy to the Russian plan? Who knew?”
Apparently only you. I certainly didn’t. Nor did I claim to.
It’s pretty clear. But show me where I made that claim. But you can’t.
When Ukraine runs out of bodies, you can bet that “funny” Uncle Sam will start supplying them.
They already are! There were hardy any Ukrainians on the front lines in Donbass. Most are Polish, English and US grunts.
re: “within its internationally recognized borders”– Jake made that up, there is no such thing.
Many commenters here won’t be satisfied until they themselves are blown sky high, for an antiwar news site I’ve followed near 20 years. It has become a very pro war commentation with both sides eagerly awaiting the next loss of their fellow man, woman and child in a brutal painful way.
The pro Ukraine flags and pro Russian cheering is a testimony against yourself on a antiwar page.
Even Saddam would weep at sunni Iraqi children having holes drilled in their head or shite women being raped and buried alive in return or ISIS families being gorged to death in return violence.
But here it seems people are intent in being a pro sided war supporter instead of one who hates all and every war including the war against Germany.
You cannot ride the fence if you hate war then you must live your life with love for all including Hitler. Accept that your death may come from it but never change and never give in to war fever.
Good point, and let’s face it, antiwar.com has been powerless in ending war over the years.
That is a red line because of Sevastopol.
If Crimea is Ukraine, then Kosovo is Serbia.
….and Guantanamo is Cuban.
That is exactly how Serbia sees it – and why they are not as eager to support Russia as they would otherwise be.
Well said.
And the Golan Heights is Israel.
Ukraine is basically killing its own people…!
“Russia Warns US Against Enabling Attacks on Crimea Jake Sullivan reaffirmed the US has not placed limitations on Ukraine’s use of American weapons on Crimea”
Keep poking the bear and a very large bombs will seal Zelensky in his bunker as a tomb!
I don’t know why Kremlin even bother to issue these warnings. Clearly it isn’t working. These pests only understand the language of brute force.
One of the things I’ve noticed about Putin is that he is meticulous in describing his intentions. Aside from throwing weight behind Blinken’s warnings of crossing a red line, I’m convinced that Putin has put it in writing so that nobody can pretend, after they set off a chain of events, that they didn’t know or understand.
Putin is playing to an international audience.
Saudi Arabia blatantly disobeyed the US twice recently making peace with Iran and accepting Syria into the Arab League.
Other nations are disobeying the US in smaller ways. The NATO armor attack on Belgograd will move other nations to more disobedience
He is playing with peoples lives. This is a bad game. He need to start exterminating parasites in US and England directly. And since they’ve tried to kill him recently, he is fully justified to carry out a terrorist clean up operation at least in England.
As if blowing up a pipeline of a supposed ally isn’t enough.
The toxic trio of Sullivan, Blinken, and Nuland control US foreign policy no matter who is the POTUS. Congress has completely abrogated its constitutional responsibility to wage war to these crazies as well. Don’t they know that the neocon abiding hatred for Russia is leading the USA into a catastrophic unwinnable war that will be the end of the USA as we know it? Little did we know that Rumsfeld’s 2001 list of nations that the Pentagon intended to “take out” included the USA.
Ever so slowly inching towards a major outbreak of fighting between NATO and Russia. Giving Putin no choice but to use theater tactical nukes. Then vilifying him to the rest of the world and continuing to move the conflict to Russia proper. We all know what the end game is here. Remove Putin and cronies and usher in democracy in Russia because it works so well in America. Aka; debt ceiling. Then pilfer Russia’s recourses for pennies on the dollar because of reparations and damage to NATO countries.
“Giving Putin no choice but to use theater tactical nukes”
It’s kind of funny how any time the US regime does something bad — and it does PLENTY of bad things — those bad things were choices. But any time the Russian regime does something bad … or even muses about doing something bad … they were “given no choice.”
If Putin CHOOSES to use nukes, it will be because he CHOOSES to use nukes. Nobody else will be responsible for his CHOICE, any more than he is responsible for e.g. Biden’s choices.
Yeah, aggression and retaliation. And considering the kind of aggression Kremlin is withstanding, there is much retaliation points stored up.
Biden isn’t deciding. Anyone who thinks someone in his mental state is actually deciding anything is wrong.
Russia and Russian speaking Ukrainians were backed into a corner with the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych during the Orange Revolution. This laid the ground work for the current war in Ukraine. Russian speaking Ukrainians saw that as a power grab by anti Russian Ukrainians. Forces aided and abetted by the West. Removed Russian leaning Yanukovych for pro Western and NATO leaning Poroshenko now Zelenskyy. Who pushed the Russian speaking Ukrainians into asking Putin to intervene because of attacks on the Donbas by those anti Russian forces in Ukraine. I’ve read the history. Everything is a choice until it’s not because your backed into a corner. Don’t you know how statecraft works?
Nice educational video on the prelude to the SMO.
USA deserves to be destroyed,
if ukraine wants to be like us, they’re dumb af.
We have no culture but greed, no love only wars, prioritizes color of skin over skills, born into servitude unable to escape is a prisoner, forced to labor that doesn’t pay enough for food or a roof, is worse than a slave, as the poor are blamed for riches losses, blamed for not working hard enough while theres 1 job opening per one million people! It’s the Poor’s fault for not trying hard enough while being fed poison in a box labeled as the only food affordable for wages. Starvation the American way.
Work or you’ll starve to death.
USA’s only motto