The White House confirmed for the first time on Monday that it authorized Ukraine to launch US-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) into Russia, an escalation Russia has made clear risks nuclear war.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US “did change the guidance” for Ukraine to allow ATACMS strikes on Russian territory, including in the Kursk Oblast, where Russia is gradually pushing out an invading Ukrainian force.
“They are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis. And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk Oblast,” Kirby said.
The New York Times first reported last week that President Biden authorized Ukraine to fire ATACMS, which have a range of about 190 miles, into Russian territory. Two days later, Ukraine fired ATACMS into Russia’s Bryansk Oblast.
Unconfirmed reports from Ukrainian military bloggers say Ukraine struck a Russian airfield in Kursk on Sunday night with a cluster bomb ATACMS, which are an older variant and have a shorter range than the newer version. Cluster bombs spread small submunitions over large areas and can leave duds behind that civilians can come across years after the conflict. They have been banned by more than 100 countries due to their indiscriminate nature, but the US has poured them into Ukraine.
Russia has said that the authorization of ATACMS strikes on Russian territory means the US is now directly at war with Russia since Ukraine needs intelligence from the US to fire the missiles. Ukraine has also been given the green light to use British-provided Storm Shadow missiles in strikes on Russia and the French variant, known as SCALP missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he believes Russia now has the right to strike the military facilities of countries supplying such missiles to Ukraine. “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said last week. “If anyone else doubts this, then they are wrong – there will always be a response.”
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile into Ukraine in response to ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles being used on Russian territory. Putin also formalized changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine in response to the US escalation that lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.
Lame duck governments who just got soundly ass whipped in an election have no business trying to escalate Wars.
Probably the goal of the escalation is to provoke Russia to hit American military infrastructure in Poland, which is priority target anyway. Then it'll be easier to drag Poland into the war. The same about France, UK and Germany. A bigger European war that's what they want.
Plausible, my brother. But that's not the problem. The problem is we, EVERYONE OF US, should be concerned about it, but we are not!!!
Don’t worry! The US says it will have a hypersonic missile in two years. Putin will wait patiently for this development.
Hard to believe that the country that developed the Safest & Most Perfectly Effective® serum to prevent contraction and spread of (The World's Deadliest Virus Of Unspecified Origin) in the space of 6-8 months, needs two YEARS to develop a weapon they must have been fantasizing about for more than a decade already…
I think, most of us are concerned about that. That's why the rating of NATO hawks is moving down on both sides of Atlantic.
I would say, “most of us” here. Outside this echo-chamber, as I heard Wars say it, nobody seems to be paying attention and could be lulling themselves to sleep on the news. Russophobia is very strong, my friend.
Racket (Taibbi/Kirn) played a clip from Dr Strangelove with George C Scott, talking up using the bomb with little consequences.
It hits waaay too close to home with the crazies today (who are not in a comedy).
Some would want this, but Biden for example would not. He and those around him were deeply unhappy with Ukraine's Kursk invasion, and various officials said they hadn't been informed about it. While Britain and Germany trumpeted the use of their tanks in Kursk, the U.S. showed no such support.
Considering that reluctance, it's unlikely Biden would want a wider war. He gives Ukraine the go-ahead for long-distance strikes only to make it more difficult for Trump to negotiate peace.
What do you think about this guy?
Kiev officials stole up to half of US aid: Ex-Polish deputy minister
According to a former Polish deputy minister, Ukraine did not get as much foreign aid as the Biden administration reported, and what it did receive was substantially embezzled. Piotr Kulpa claims Ukrainian authorities misappropriated up to half of the financial aid given to Kiev.
The political pundit formerly held many positions in the Polish government, including deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is now a regular contributor to Ukrainian web shows.
Kulpa, an outspoken admirer of US President-elect Donald Trump, told Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Thursday that “Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine but also the supplier nation."
“Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!" Kulpa added.
He accused US aid programs of writing off large sums of money that finance "shady systems under Democratic Party control."
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/kiev-officials-stole-up-to-half-of-us-aid–ex-polish-deputy
Many people believe that "Omnicide Joe" (See Norman's article) is demented. But they are still willing to believe him when he claims Russia is bluffing! …No!? Then why aren't we all out complaining against dying in a nuclear war!?
You really believe Joe Biden is making the decisions about anything for this regime? Biden was installed as a pliable stooge puppet president in the rigged 2020 election. That should be clear to everybody by now.
State media is minimizing risk, “he doesn’t really mean it”. But on the other hand, we are supposed to believe that Putin is an unhinged insane madman who will stop at nothing to take over the world.
How do they reconcile their diametrically opposed narratives?
It doesn’t matter. Almost ten years of brainwashing rinsed out any rational thinking.
Wash, rinse, repeat…
I agree. All the brainwashing washed out all the grey matter leaving only lizard brains. I didn’t notice the grey color leaking out of my ears until it was too late.
If the situation was reversed would America stand for strikes into the US.
Attacking into Russia proper?
This is what happens when Ivy League people who never served in the military and have no military training are allowed to play war.
Jake Sullivan and Anthoney Blinken along with their minions are the war criminals of this century.
The establishment wants war.
They only have a little more than 2 mons. to get it going.
Establishment Dems and Repubs do nothing to stop this unconstitutional act of war.
There are 50 ATACMS in Ukraine, and they used six of them, more than ten percent, just to strike an old Soviet depot that had no connection to the ongoing war. Just to get a mushroom cloud to show in the media. And then they had to re-use pictures from September to get that mushroom cloud.
They didn't strike more valuable targets because they are too well-defended. Even in this case, most of the ATACMS were shot down. Furthermore, the HIMARS that fire them can be destroyed. Already several were destroyed when they were moved close to Kursk for the incursion, and one more was destroyed just last week.
There are only 20 or so SCALP missiles in Ukraine. And not many Storm Shadows either. The Shadows are more efficient than ATACMS though since they can fly close to the ground and avoid detection better.
But the planes firing the Storm Shadows are vulnerable. They fired the Shadows from far back, likely by the Dniepr River, to avoid being shot down. Which means they still can't reach far into Russia. Just like how the F16s are kept safely tucked away in western Ukraine, as the hunters simply turned out to be the hunted.
The first Storm Shadow strike therefore couldn't hit any important command center, which are always far away from the front today. They hit a village near Kursk and simply declared that it was a command center, and pretended that they had killed a North Korean general. Quickly changed to wounded a general.
Just like when they claim that "North Koreans are fighting on the front and we have killed many of them," there are zero pictures, zero evidence. The NK illusion was always just a way to make the Kursk incursion sound more valid and to get to use the ATACMS at a longer range.
This is 'The Fog of War'.
Any quantitative estimates we get of weaponry, military assets, casualty figures, etc. should be treated with skepticism.
The one thing that is evident are Russia's eastern front advances and both Russian and the Empire's rhetoric escalation.
The next few months will be very telling.
This is actually enormous news. The Oreshnik missile is unstoppable. It immediately settles the argument about whether aircraft carriers should be used in modern war as they can now easily be hit and sunk. The ships assigned air-defense support won't be able to stop the Oreshnik.
(The two British aircraft carriers built on Tony Blair's orders need seven support ships, one of which is a submarine. Two ships do anti-sub defense, two do anti-air defense, and they can't stop the Oreshnik. Today's British navy is built around these two costly aircraft carriers.)
The U.S. so far has no missiles like this.
Russia must chill and wait for Trumpy to get to office. If there is NO CHANGE, WWW-3 is a certain! 🙁
How will starting WW-3 make anything better for Putin/Russia?
Is it that you claim that the usage of ATTCMS will cause not only Russia to lose in Ukraine but also Russia to disintegrate as a state???
It is USA, the evil empire at fault,,NOT Russia. Get educated Michael. 🙂
The US is evil – that has long time been my opinion – that however does not make Russia any less evil – perhaps you should recognize this possibility – few if any of Russia’s neighbors have had democratic majorities for wanting closer ties to Russia after escaping the Soviet Union.
Russia wants trade, free trade, they also wanted in NATO a few years ago,,turned down, hmmmm?? As to the other countries you refer too, not my problem at all, they need to get over it.
No NATO was never on the table, Russia joining would nullify the value of NATO membership – and Russia was not rejected nor did they apply. Everyone wants free trade – only the partners we trust and who have comparable economics are likely to get such deals with us (the west US or EU).
The countries may not be your problem but they are the problem of Russia – as long as they feel threatened by Russia relations are likely to remain poor.
Michael, you are mistaken, seriously.
In what way?
1) That NATO would be worthless with Russia as a member.
2) That Russia never applied for NATO membership
3) That Russia would not be offered a free trade deal on account of their economic circumstances
4) That relations with Russia will stay poor as long as the neighbors feel threatened.
You have to be more specific with regards to what you think I'm mistaken about.
"They are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis. And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk Oblast,” Kirby said.
That's intensely stupid.
So then, the Russian Federation continuing to attack UkrainiaNATO forces in Ukrainian areas under Russian Federation control is ALSO 'defending themselves', by Kirby's Dream Land logic…?
I guess Americans complaining about the Russian Federation's military actions should STFU up, then ?
Breaking new ground sounds progressive until it become tectonic.
Since before World War Two the US has not launched any sort of munition into Russia for fear of sparking world war three. The current lame duck Biden administration is avidly trying to spark world war three for its own political…
Why? What political gain is there? How does world war three help anyone anywhere? Who would actively seek the start of world war three?
No one wants world war three; so why are so many people in charge of governments throughout the western world braying for world war three? What do they believe they're doing and why?
I'll grant they've behaved with profound stupidity since before Brexit and before Trump, detaching themselves entirely from most of humanity by way of their own corrupt pursuit of wealth, but their behavior these last 8 years has been quite apparently insane to everyone with eyes, ears and a memory.
If they had pretended to world domination prior to being beaten in Ukraine, what are they pretending to now, as they lower their heads for ramming speed at China with Russia crushed beneath their giant feet? Within the realm of propaganda corporate media, these leaders are defending democracy in our behalf against wholly inferior autocratic monsters bent on crude, unenlightened conquest.
Do these people have any capacity for perception of reality as it is, or are they facing their political death through Ross's 5 stages of terminal helplessness? Can they construct a place in their psyche for total failure and capitulation after living the life of secular kings and queens? We'd be wise to designate an island where they can all retire safely if they will just walk away from the controls, but who'd take their place? It seems to be greedy delusional sycophants all the way down.
A friend told me Putin wasn't serious because he didn't actually detonate a nuclear weapon in anger, so we needn't be concerned. He's bluffing, just as our great leaders say he is. Then again, I heard realist professor John Mearsheimer say over and over that Trump wants to end the Ukraine war, as if he knew for a fact what Trump wanted and took him at his word. Now Trump's nominees are saying they will continue along Biden's policy arc and will in fact double down if not order of magnitude up, flooding Ukraine with as many world war three weapons as it takes to end it (all). Gorka's suicide not withstanding, isn't most homicide a form of repressed suicide? Aren't power mad people mostly mad and mostly seeing other people as objects in their way? Can't we realize those "people in the way" can number in the billions if necessary?
Daniel Ellsberg went to a matinee of Dr Strangelove: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb with a RAND coworker and they both wondered out loud to each other, "Is this a documentary?"
Now "dead hand" actually exists; nuclear proliferation treaties have been abrogated; and a state of hot war exists between the two most deadly nuclear powers on earth. Our potential savior is a well known narcissistic psychopath who's been purchased by Israel, just like the lame duck other president currently driving hard to world war three.
I'm sure mindfulness training will solve all of these problems fully, just tell me what to do in minute detail, moment by moment, so everything works out as planned for the greater good. I'm sorry I made all of this happen by dissenting against neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and the entire capitalogenic mind set.
You make the case that there is nothing to gain from starting WW-3, a point I agree with – so why is it that you think the Russians will start WW-3 because Ukraine will start WW-3 on account of ATTCMS, Storm Shadow or Scalp?
Just asking because none of the Western nations will declare war on Russia.
But then they are not – they are risking that Putin will start WW-3 if he thinks that would benefit him or Russia – but as you pointed out it'll not.
How is 70-80'ties conventional tactical technology WW-3 weapons?
No there is not a state of hot war between any nuclear powers (the closest we have to that is between India and Pakistan).
Again only if you think the Russians are mad and will start WW-3 with no expectation of improving their situation.
Can you make a case for Putin or the Russians standing to gain significantly from starting WW-3 – otherwise how is it that you think that will start from Ukraine winning let alone just firing what is fairly short range western weapons at what is internationally recognized Russian territory?
Just asking because they have been firing the very same weapons at Russian occupied parts of Ukraine – parts that according to Russian law is already Russia.
When Russia gives the Ukrainian government 24 hours to evacuate its military command and control bunkers prior to pulverization using multiple Oreshnik kinetic missiles, we'll find out if the US/UK/NATO blob seeks world war three or its own survival. There are no missile defense systems or bunkers on earth capable of withstanding Oreshnik.
It's neocon "hegemony or survival," as Noam Chomsky titled one of his books. The US has been at war against most of the world and nearly all of its people since September 11, 2001.
Russia can't start a world war that's ongoing, but it can raise the stakes to include death and destruction for the war's elite instigators by way of pinpoint total destruction of them personally. It's like the old dentist joke where the patient says, "I'm sure this won't hurt a bit either," while clutching the dentist's nuts.
The Oresnik does not have the precision needed for this kind of strikes with conventional load – are you proposing that the Russians will use nukes?
More importantly the west will not be threatened on its survival even if the Russians use nukes in Ukraine (nor if the Russians were able to change the precision capabilities of the Oresnik).
None of the western states are at war with Russia – if Russia attacks any of the NATO states they will change this status – depending on how they carry out such an attack it can escalate to WW-3.
You may argue that it was the west that started it by XYZ but it is Russia's actions that will change the origin of Western strikes.
I.e. no WW-3 is not yet on or it is not yet at a stage where missiles are flying between NATO states and Russia – only a Russian attack on a NATO state can change this.
RIP Daniel Ellsberg. A true American hero.
Based on speculation, but a tiny bit of hope? For now the article is not behind a paywall:
BIDEN’S LAST HURRAH AGAINST RUSSIA AND PUTIN
Frustration escalates for the the lame duck president
https://seymourhersh.substa…
If we are rescued from nuclear apocalypse, it will have been Putin to be credited, who exercised restraint.
And not bitter old codger Biden.
I believe that Russia will escalate against Ukraine and wrap up this war earlier than they would have, and then they will deal with NATO. I don't think that these missiles NATO is launching into Russia are going to be that much of a problem for Russia. Even NATO leaders are saying that they won't alter the course of the war.