The New York Times reported Monday that the Biden administration has “shrugged off” Ukrainian attacks inside Russia as US officials are no longer as concerned about escalation as they were earlier in the war.
The report said that during the first year of the war, Biden administration officials worried that if Ukraine hit targets inside Russia, Moscow could retaliate against NATO. But those fears are gone as the administration does not seem concerned over the recent attacks inside Russia, which have included drone attacks on residential areas in Moscow and a cross-border raid in Russia’s Belgorod region that was carried out using US armored vehicles.
“It’s not like we’re going to go out and investigate this,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters when asked if the US thought Ukraine was behind the attacks in Moscow. According to the Times, administration officials seem even less concerned behind closed doors.
The lessening concern of escalation from the US and its NATO allies has been a pattern throughout the war. In March 2022, the US and other NATO countries rejected a Polish offer to send its Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine over concerns that Moscow could view the move as the alliance directly entering the war. Earlier this year, Poland and Slovakia delivered MiG-29s to Ukraine, and President Biden signed off on European countries sending US-made F-16s to Kyiv.
The US also used to be more concerned about the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, but that has waned as well. US officials think Putin might only use a nuke if he feels “cornered” or if his control of Crimea is threatened. Despite that assessment, Biden administration officials have repeatedly said that they support Ukrainian attacks on Crimea and won’t restrict Kyiv’s ability to use American weapons on the peninsula.
The Biden administration’s lack of concern about escalating the war appears to be based only on the fact that Putin hasn’t taken action against NATO up to this point. But it’s clear that as the war drags on and the US and NATO continue to increase support for Kyiv, a direct clash between the Western alliance and Russia becomes more likely.
Implicit in this lack of fear of Russian escalation (if the US is not mistaken) is the fact that the US does not think that Ukraine can threaten Crimea or any area Russia feels poses an existential threat.
That is to say, the US does not think Ukraine can achieve anything close to victory. Yet, the US policy is to reject negotiations, and continue massive arms transfers, all to try and “weaken” an adversary.
It is the height of immorality that a war which like all wars falls hardest on the innocent, be continued even in the absence of a chance at victory. The moral bankruptcy of the US empire’s ruling elite is complete.
Russians still remember what happened to the Nazi’s when they opened up a war on two fronts. That may cause some hesitation.
Honestly if a tiny country like Ukraine could provoke a nuclear war with a few ineffectual cross border raids then anything could provoke a exchange.
Maybe they can’t believe that Russia would go nuclear if pushed against the wall. The Nuland people are too stupid and can’t believe that Putin means business. He does what he says. But insanity is on the Biden/Nuland side.
Honestly, anything could provoke a nuclear war, even a mistake about a radar screen. Both sides came close to that before.
This is why the current state of affairs in the nuclear arms world is completely insane — it will kill if we keep this up. It is only a matter of time.
“Not concerned about escalation”
That is pure diplo-speak for we are not giving you troops and you damn well better show some progress in the long awaited offensive.
The Biden/Nuland administration is not concerned about provoking a clash with NATO/Russia, because it is what they want and already have. Ukraine acts with NATO permission using Ukrainians for cannon fodder and nothing else, as long as they have plausible deniability. The Ukrainian oligarchs are being paid generously for their service of selling their nation to the American oligarchs.
De facto USA/NATO has been at war with Russia since day one. Ukrainian oligarchs would not have dared to provoke or attack Russia on their own.
Less concerned?
No, I think they WANT a direct clash, as long as they can blame it on Russia in order to sell it to the US public.
Why? It is the only way out of this that is a win for the crazed neocons who provoked this war.
Their economic dreams collapsed, their fantasy of a powerless Russia collapsed, and now they are left with a war on their hands that so far they have lost.
So they WANT to escalate. They think it is their way out of their mess.
“They” is too broad a pronoun. Nuland doesn’t seem to care about anything other than her own agenda. Blinken, however, shows some common sense from time to time.
If Biden had any sense in this matter, he would replace Kirby with someone with more substance. We need another Colin Powell in the room to force Nuland to stay grounded.
Ideology over sense.
We are saying to ourselves,”what can they do to us, we are protected by two great bodies of water and the dummies in the rest of NATO, hah, hah”.
“The US also used to be more concerned about the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, but that has waned as well. US officials think Putin might only use a nuke if he feels “cornered” or if his control of Crimea is threatened. Despite that assessment, Biden administration officials have repeatedly said that they support Ukrainian attacks on Crimea and won’t restrict Kyiv’s ability to use American weapons on the peninsula.”
Hear that Ukraine? We’re either doing you a favor by not giving you enough weaponry to successfully take back Crimea or we’re giving you enough to corner Russia into using a tactical nuke on your a$$.
Not concerned up and until Putin is cornered. Do I read that right? The mountain of nukes that Putin is sitting on is not a concern. Up and until Putin launches them over Americas northern border and carpet bombs the hell out of U.S. cities with them. I get it now. That is why the U.S. is trying to install Israel’s Iron Dome system in the U.S. I’m sure Iron Dome will only protect those areas of the U.S. where the elite live and work. The rest of U.S. are toast.
You never know with Prigozhin. It is rumored that he told Russian Ministry of Defense Shoigu today to clear up the situation around Belgorod within 14 days or Wagner Group will do it for him, without orders if necessary.
Prigozhin has also suggested that the use of tactical nukes on Russia’s own territory (near Belgorod) would not be cause for retaliation by other nations.