While the US does not support the use of long-range weapons by Ukraine inside Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky states that Donald Trump risks being a “loser president” if he cuts military aid to Kyiv.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh stated on Monday that the US did not support long-range weapons strikes on Russian territory.
We don’t support long-range strike capabilities into Russia, but yes, like, ammunition, HIMARS, things like that. When it comes to that cross-border region, that is some of the focus of the policy change.
Her remarks came after US President Joe Biden last week granted Ukraine secret permission to use US-supplied weapons to launch strikes on Russian territory. However, the authorisation only applies in the area of northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, where Russian forces entered in early May and have been advancing ever since.
Singh stated that Russian forces continued to manoeuvre around Kharkiv.
So those are the type of capabilities that would be useful there. But still, our policy on long-range deep strikes within Russia, we do not support.
“Loser president”
Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday thanked US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for Washington’s recent decision to allow Kyiv to use US weapons against Russia. However, on the same day, Zelensky gave an interview to The Guardian in which he stated that Donald Trump risked becoming a “loser president” if he cut military aid to Ukraine.
Moreover, if Trump imposed what Zelensky called a “bad peace deal” on Ukraine, it would mean the end of the US as a “global player,” the president said. However, the recently convicted Trump is leading in opinion polls. It turns out that instead of a diplomatic approach in his comments about the likely next president of the United States, Zelensky is risking not only his position, but also the future of Ukraine.
Zelensky also stated that he had no strategy on what to do if Trump became president. However, he added that he would use former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a mediator.
At the highest Asian security summit in Singapore, Zelensky said he was grateful to Washington for allowing Kyiv to use US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to shell the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.
But he claimed it was not enough. The president claimed that Russia was attacking Ukraine “knowing that Ukraine will not fire back because it has no responding systems and no permissions.”
So far, however, the Biden administration has insisted that using US missiles to strike targets in Russia would draw NATO into war.
Questionable success
According to Brussels Signal, a Ukrainian “intelligence officer” bragged to Western media about attacking a massive radar installation located deep inside Russian territory. However, the radar was part of Russia’s early warning network for a ballistic nuclear strike.
Gabriel Elefteriu, a defence policy expert, warned that such actions posed a nuclear threat.
Attacking any nuclear power’s early warning systems is highly destabilising, as it can be interpreted as preparation for a nuclear strike.
Volodymyr Zelensky presumably realises that his allies are fatigued with the war. He also knows that whoever becomes US president in 2025, Washington is likely to seek to cut a deal with Russia and stop supplying arms.
Thus, by creating new threats and making dubious claims, Zelensky is trying to draw the US into a direct war against Russia. According to him, Biden will keep arms supplies to Ukraine at least until the November elections. After all the billions of dollars the US has invested in this war, the money and weapons can’t stop until after the vote.
If Trump takes power, the conflict in Ukraine will become his problem. Zelensky knows he has to get the US deeper into the war before the election in November. Otherwise, plans for a desirable but distant “victory” can be dropped.
The war in Ukraine remains Europe’s business. There is no reason why the United States should do anything about it, and Trump knows it, M. Synon from Brussels Signal writes.
