War in Ukraine Biden’s nod to missile use provokes Russia, weakens Germany and heats Trumpism – El Salto
Announced by two media outlets, the new York Times And Washington Post And not denied by the White House, outgoing US President Joe Biden’s authorization for the use of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) by Ukraine has been met with what Russia has described as a “new round of tension” in a conflict. Despite Donald Trump’s promise that it would end within 24 hours when he is inaugurated president in January 2025, there are no signs of it ending.
After more than a year without deciding whether to take action, Biden would have decided to authorize the use of these weapons due to the presence of North Korean troops in the Russian Kursk region, which are fighting against Ukrainian forces that have entered it. Are. area in August 2024. According to US media, approval from the White House for use in Kursk will always be limited. According to the official story, the Kim Jong-un regime intends to review its military alliance with Russia. Currently, there are eleven thousand North Korean troops, although this number is expected to increase to 15,000.
The ATACMS would be in a position to attack weapons and ammunition depots, supply lines and Russian military bases.
For their part, Great Britain and France have supported Biden’s initiative. Following the G20 meeting in Brazil, Keir Starmer has spoken of the need to “double down” support for Ukraine. Starmer had previously been in favor of providing Storm Shadow missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, but it required Biden’s approval. This type of missile, produced by the United Kingdom, uses American navigation data and technologies. Emmanuel Macron has also committed to allowing the use of SCALP missiles similar to Storm Shadows, with a primary limitation that they be used against described military targets and not against other targets.
“We still get a lot of LNG from Russia, why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper for us and lowers our energy prices,” von der Leyen said.
The measure adopted by Biden has been celebrated by most European leaders. The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell – who will soon be replaced by Estonian Kaja Kallas – has expressed his support for the use of ATACMS, capable of penetrating up to 300 kilometers into Russian territory. will be. area. Other representatives of European countries such as Estonia or Poland have been completely in favor of this news.
The weak link is Germany, a country in which Chancellor Olaf Scholz is isolated and torn between a rising far-right party that demands an end to aid to Ukraine and establishment parties and media that seek to strengthen it. Is. Scholz is coming under criticism after he was reported to have made a phone call to Putin last Friday, November 15. Zelensky deplored, saying, “This is what Putin has wanted for a long time: it is important for him to weaken Russia’s isolation.”
Opposition to Trumpism, but not much
It’s no coincidence that the authorization comes as Biden’s days in the White House are numbered. Democrats have pursued a policy of tough support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. A Foreign Affairs report in April of the same year detailed how, due to a number of related factors, Washington prevented Zelensky from signing the draft ceasefire, drawn up in Istanbul a few weeks after the second phase of the war. Had gone. Open since 2014.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the article, “in the name of the ‘Anglo-Saxon world'”, informing the Ukrainian authority that it would have to “fight Russia until victory is achieved and Russia is dealt a strategic defeat.” May not be found.”
The line since then, in this case, clashes with announcements initiated by Donald Trump, who will be Biden’s successor. Trump has been close to Putin in the past and in his team for the next term he has prioritized anti-China people over issues on the Russian front. Vice President JD Vance and new intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard have both shown themselves to be far from the White House’s so far adopted line of unconditional aid to Russia.
However, the principle that Trump seems willing to follow does not imply that Putin should be given what he wants, but rather that Michael Waltz, who will be appointed national security adviser, has called for “through force Described as “Peace”. US media say that, like in his first term, Trump will use a carrot and stick policy with Russia. During the campaign, Waltz defended that the use of weapons on Russian territory would open Ukraine’s hands and introduced another fundamental element, the energy conflict with Russia, which he described as “gas stations with nuclear power plants”. Defined as.
By “forcing” Putin to sit at the negotiating table, Trump wants to send a message of strength to his voters. But, in the eyes of its donors, the United States’ energy sector has been the biggest beneficiary of the war in Ukraine. In two years, EU countries have tripled imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the new government has no intention of stopping it. One of Trump’s campaign slogans is “Drill, baby, drill.”
As January approached and we waited for the new team in the White House and a possible turn in Germany, the war continued and Russia attacked Odessa yesterday with ten reported dead.
European regimes do not ignore this dependence, which distances the United States from Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared, “We still receive a lot of LNG from Russia, why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper for us and lowers our energy prices?”
Perhaps for this reason, reports from Kiev are not pessimistic about the mandate of Trump, who had already allowed Ukraine to acquire Javelin missiles in his first term “to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
From that perspective, the question is how “peace through strength” contributes to the achievement of genuine peace. It is not ruled out that Trump maintains Biden’s permission to use ATACMS missiles at the same time as he puts Putin at the negotiating table. In his favor, Zelensky described the talks as ‘warm and constructive’ after speaking to him and Putin also congratulated Trump and announced that the two would ‘talk’ about a possible agreement.
All sides – the US, Russia and Ukraine – seem to agree on who is the weak link in these circumstances. Germany and especially its Chancellor Olaf Scholz is the country on which all parties are putting pressure.
The Greens, the liberal FDP party and the right-wing CDU have both announced they will send Taurus missiles if they form a government after the February 23 elections. The German government of Olaf Scholz is the only one among the countries producing this type of technology in the Euro-Atlantic context, denying its supply to Kiev for the moment, although in the last few hours “secret” shipments have been made for use by the Ukrainian army. 4,000 attack drones have surfaced.
Trump has described Germany as a “bad example” for its energy policies and closing nuclear plants and has also warned that he will judge his alliance policy according to the degree of compliance with the 2% military spending requirement established by the United States. Will install. The NATO framework, all this despite the fact that NATO is not the frame of reference for the newly elected president.
the war continues
As January approaches and we await the new team in the White House and a possible turn in Germany, the war continues and Russia attacked Odessa yesterday with ten reported dead. The reference is to Biden’s announcement, which was interpreted in the Kremlin as “pouring gasoline on the fire”. Russian media reminded that in September, Vladimir Putin had referred to this possibility as an escalation that would mean “nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries.”
Following the announcement, a representative of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian Upper House condemned that Biden’s authorization is a step “toward the Third World War”, which was also echoed in the United States, where two representatives of Trumpism , Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr. have used the same expression to condemn Biden’s approval of the missiles.
However, the main establishment media seems to support the idea that Trump can avoid any problems if he brings the parties to the table. The principles have changed since the failed Istanbul talks; Today, one of the analysts of this war for The New York Times, Megan K. Stack put the issue in concrete terms. Stack says that the United States “provided enough support to keep the war going, but never enough to win it.”
Thus, an impasse has been reached, in which Zelensky’s aim of integrating Ukraine into NATO remains a fantasy and any negotiations on the region will start from the situation that exists now rather than before the war began. “The United States is not going to save Ukraine. “Maybe we need ruthless, dishonest Trump to finally say it out loud and act on it,” Stack says.
Thus, Biden’s OK to send the missiles has been interpreted as a final signal aimed at currying favor with Kiev ahead of potential talks that would be led by Trump. And also as an effort to continue tying the EU to Pentagon designs before the unexpected next president develops his own plans. if you have it.