>Ukrainian and European officials said they’ve already recorded the Russians using the airfields closest to Ukraine’s border less. Military aircraft now use these landing strips for just a quick stop to refuel or maintenance.
>“There’s no doubt that if there is a decision on this now, to allow these weapons to be used, some of the advantage has already been squandered through this timorousness,” said Keir Giles, an analyst at the London-based Chatham House think tank.
>One Ukrainian official suggested that the new American argument about the lack of effectiveness of cross-border strikes probably emerged “because the previous excuse is not working anymore.”
>A European diplomat in Kyiv said they believed Ukraine launched its recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in part to make a statement to the West that Putin’s red lines can be crossed without fear of major retaliation, such as the use of nuclear weapons.
>Those considerations aren’t enough to dissuade the Biden administration from taking any confrontational steps against Russia — Ukraine has been using U.S. weaponry on Russian soil in its attack on the Kursk region in ways that stretch the previous rules of engagement for U.S. military aid — but in the specific case of ATACMS, the benefits of allowing strikes on Russian soil are not compelling enough to outweigh the drawbacks, the officials said.
1 Comment
Archived version: [https://archive.fo/z83xC](https://archive.fo/z83xC).
Summary:
>Ukrainian and European officials said they’ve already recorded the Russians using the airfields closest to Ukraine’s border less. Military aircraft now use these landing strips for just a quick stop to refuel or maintenance.
>“There’s no doubt that if there is a decision on this now, to allow these weapons to be used, some of the advantage has already been squandered through this timorousness,” said Keir Giles, an analyst at the London-based Chatham House think tank.
>One Ukrainian official suggested that the new American argument about the lack of effectiveness of cross-border strikes probably emerged “because the previous excuse is not working anymore.”
>A European diplomat in Kyiv said they believed Ukraine launched its recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in part to make a statement to the West that Putin’s red lines can be crossed without fear of major retaliation, such as the use of nuclear weapons.
>But [Russia still can escalate elsewhere in ways](https://archive.fo/o/z83xC/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/22/putin-russia-red-lines-nuclear-threat-retaliation/) that make the Biden administration’s life more difficult on the world stage, U.S. officials said, by arming the Houthi militia group in Yemen that has been threatening maritime traffic in the Red Sea, for example, or handing nuclear know-how to Iran, or increasing its campaign of sabotage attacks in Europe.
>Those considerations aren’t enough to dissuade the Biden administration from taking any confrontational steps against Russia — Ukraine has been using U.S. weaponry on Russian soil in its attack on the Kursk region in ways that stretch the previous rules of engagement for U.S. military aid — but in the specific case of ATACMS, the benefits of allowing strikes on Russian soil are not compelling enough to outweigh the drawbacks, the officials said.
!ping Ukraine&Foreign-policy&International-relations