Biden stopped being afraid of Putin’s “red lines”: NYT – about the transfer of ATACMS to Ukraine

For many months, the American leader did not dare to send long-range weapons to Kyiv.

The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, has changed his position on sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, writes NYT .

It is noted that for the better part of 18 months, the American leader did not agree to transfer long-range missiles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order not to cross one of the “red lines” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The publication writes that Biden had to seriously consider this scenario due to the nuclear threats of the Russian Federation.

However, after Ukraine received British Storm Shadow missiles, similar in characteristics to ATACMS, the administration of the US president concluded that the escalation of the conflict due to this is no longer a serious problem.

According to the NYT, Biden agreed to hand over ATACMS to Kyiv and told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when they met in Washington in September. At the same time, the leaders agreed not to announce this decision in order to catch the Russian troops by surprise.

The US secretly transferred ATACMS to Ukraine – what was reported

As UNIAN wrote, on the night of October 17, the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit two airfields with Russian aircraft and ammunition in occupied Berdyansk and Luhansk with ATACMS missiles.

It turned out that the United States secretly transferred long-range missiles to Kyiv so that the Russians would not have time to remove the weapons beyond their reach.

It is known that the ATACMS missiles transferred to Ukraine are equipped with cluster munitions.

The publication Politico wrote that the transfer of ATACMS marks a serious strengthening of the protection of Ukraine by the administration of the US president.

“President Joe Biden did not dare to transfer the ATACMS missile system, fearing an escalation of the conflict. This transfer indicates that the administration’s calculations have changed after the slow Ukrainian counteroffensive,” the publication said.

(C)UNIAN 2023