“We’re not actually in the war with Russia” was always sort of a Talmudist technicality type thing. The US and EU were always pretty much “in the war.”
But now this weird technicality has gotten ridiculous. The Ukraine is basically just a mercenary army paid by US/NATO to go to war with Russia.
The West has said that the goal of the operation is to either overthrow the government of Russia, or to cripple the country so they don’t have any ability to defend themselves in the future.
So far, the West has provided every wunderwaffen that KEEV has demanded.
Now they want to… send Western missiles at Moscow?
Ukraine wants permission from the west to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles to destroy targets deep inside Russia, believing this could force Moscow into negotiating an end to the fighting.
Senior figures in Kyiv have suggested that using the Anglo-French weapons in a “demonstration attack” will show the Kremlin that military sites near the capital itself could be vulnerable to direct strikes.
The thinking, according to a senior government official, is that Russia will consider negotiating only if it believes Ukraine had the ability “to threaten Moscow and St Petersburg”. This is a high-risk strategy, however, and does not so far have the support of the US.
Threaten Moscow and St Petersburg.
Huh.
The Ukraine could never, ever do that without the US going into the country and pointing long range missiles at these cities.
I guess it’s still considered a joke when Putin says he’ll nuke you? They kept saying he was old and insane and dying and he didn’t care what happened, then they said “oh no, he’s far too reasonable to ever nuke anyone.”
If he wanted to nuke someone though, he could actually nuke everyone.
Ukraine has been lobbying for months to be allowed to use Storm Shadow against targets inside Russia, but with little success. Nevertheless, as its army struggles on the eastern front, there is a growing belief that its best hope lies in counter-attack.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking on the country’s independence day, said Kyiv had no choice but to retaliate against Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched “913 days ago” in February 2022 – and in particular against Moscow’s use of aerial bombs and ballistic missiles against civilians.
“Our enemy will also know what the Ukrainian retaliation means,” the president said. “Worthy, symmetrical and long-range. They will know that, sooner or later, a Ukrainian response will reach any point in the Russian Federation that is a source of danger to the life of our state and our people.”
…
Storm Shadow missiles were developed primarily by an Anglo-French collaboration and are made by European joint venture MBDA, which also has an Italian partner. But because some of its components are supplied by the US, the White House also has to agree to its use inside Russia. It has so far refused to do so, fearing an escalation of the conflict.
Zelenskiy has argued that the aftermath of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia shows that Kremlin warnings about red lines are exaggerated. Moscow has largely downplayed the attack: leaders barely refer to it in public and describe their response as a “counter-terrorism operation”.
…
John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Russia and Ukraine, said Kyiv “should not get sucked into a sideshow” by fixating on possible use of Storm Shadow and should instead focus on defending the Donbas.
Yeah, a lot of people thought they should have defended the Donbass instead of trying to invade Russia, which is the craziest thing anyone has ever seen.
But they did invade Russia, with elite troops pulled from the frontlines.
And apparently the purpose of this attack was to… prove that Russia won’t actually nuke anyone?
I think if Zelensky started actually firing missiles at Moscow, you would probably see him dead. At some point, enough is enough. Russia has the ability to target Kiev. This has probably gotten to the point where the optics of killing a lot of people in the capital city are better than just continuing on at this pace.
Today, we celebrate the 33rd Independence Day of Ukraine. We are confident that Ukrainians will always celebrate this holiday in their free capital and within their own sovereign state.
Ukraine will always remain independent—this is beyond question. Together, we have given a… pic.twitter.com/yf4zNaBOah
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 24, 2024