Biden no longer held back by fear of Russian nuclear threats, expert says

The US President has made several serious decisions in favor of Ukraine, although Putin continues to threaten.

US President Joe Biden’s decision to grant Ukraine permission to fire Western missiles at Russia may indicate that, as his term draws to a close, he has decided to no longer hold back out of fear of a Russian nuclear threat that never materialized, says Dov Zakheim, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said the decision was nominally a response to Russia sending some 50,000 troops to fight in the Kursk region, including about 10,000 North Koreans. The North Korean troops are the vanguard of a much larger North Korean contingent, perhaps as many as 100,000, that is set to join the Russian army, he wrote in The Hill .

Biden’s decision also allowed Ukraine to use British-French Storm Shadow/Scalp air-launched missiles, which incorporate American-made terrain-mapping systems and are therefore subject to American restrictions.

On the day Ukraine first used ATACMS on Russia , Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin officially signed off on changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. Now, Ukrainian air strikes with Western missiles on Russian territory allegedly “directly involve NATO countries in a military conflict.”

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ operation in the Kursk region certainly meets Russia’s new criteria for the use of nuclear weapons. But it is reported that Ukraine’s use of, in particular, ATACMS on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea should also be a reason for a “Russian response.”

“However, in practice, no matter what Russia’s official nuclear doctrine says, the decision to use or not to use nuclear weapons was always made by Putin alone. And he did not order their use, although the White House was constantly afraid of this. In fact, the Kremlin did nothing but make threatening noise,” notes Zakheim.

He also emphasizes that if all the decisions necessary for Ukraine had been made by the United States a few years ago, the war could have ended long ago.

(C)UNIAN 2024