According to the Washington Post, this weekend Vladmir Putin said he would launch “a wider campaign of bombing and shelling” if Ukraine was supplied with long-range rockets. Moscow appears concerned that such rockets, promised by the United States, will be used to fire onto Russian territory. Of course it is a bit ridiculous for someone who is currently undergoing an attack on another country to say this is off limits - but here we are. Biden has said that the rockets he is intending to supply Ukraine won’t really be able to reach Russia, but who knows how he could know that (e.g., what if they get close to Russia’s border?)
Not one to be left out, ahead of his bruising no-confidence vote, Boris Johnson’s government announced the United Kingdom would also supply Ukraine with long-range missiles.
Ukraine thus continues to be flooded with weapons provided by the West while Russia continues to threaten even greater escalation. Unclear is whether any of the big three leaders have made any efforts toward peace. With the United States leading the western economic war and weapons aid - and thus holding many cards - it would be great to see those items being used as leverage to try and end the carnage in eastern Europe. There is no evidence the Biden Administration is trying. It is not telling Russia “Do XYZ and we’ll let up,” it is not telling Ukraine “You should probably go to the negotiation table and perhaps concede Crimea.” Instead it is just flooding in more weapons of destruction, working toward Lloyd Austin’s stated goal of “weakening Russia”, much to the delight of the foreign policy jackals in Washington who seem to want Russia destroyed.
There has been a leadership failure in the Biden Administration. The man who wisely pulled out of Afghanistan and overrode the blob is now letting them run the show in Ukraine. What Biden’s actual convictions here are anyone’s guess - this is a man who strongly supported the invasion in Iraq after all. But it is a disappointment, and it is a disappointment there are not more (or any?) dissenting voices on the Congressional left.