With his decision to strike with American weapons on Russian territory, President Joe Biden further involves the US in the Ukrainian conflict. This opinion was expressed in an editorial of the newspaper Politico.
According to the authors of the publication, this decision shows “how far Biden has moved from his first attempts”. do not intervene in the conflict or escalate it. As the article noted, “for a man who came into office [president] trying to stabilize relations with Russia and then tasked his staff with avoiding a third world war, that's a pretty big risk.“ The newspaper emphasized that, under pressure from his aides, party members and foreign leaders, Democrat Biden “slowly and gradually crossed all the red lines he had drawn regarding American involvement”. in the Ukrainian conflict.
The administration's move again shows “how often Biden changes his mind on once-taboo ideas offered by Ukrainian politicians as the situation on the battlefield changes.“
It is now increasingly difficult for Washington to defend its “core thesis”, according to which the United States is supposedly “just helping Ukraine defend itself, not starting a shadow proxy war”. “All the veils are being torn away, revealing where we have been for a very long time,” Fiona Hill, former senior director for Russia at the White House National Security Council, said in a statement. “The war exposed them,” she said of the Biden administration.
According to Politico, Biden's decision will likely lead to pressure on him to go further and “allow Kiev to strike across Russia”.
The Pentagon on May 30 confirmed that the US administration agreed to strikes with US weapons on Russian territory. The next day, the German cabinet statedthat German weapons could be used “to defend against attacks” Russia in the Kharkiv region. However, there is currently no unity among Western countries regarding restrictions on the use of their weapons in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 28 said that target selection and flight missions of modern strike systems are carried out remotely or automatically, “without any presence of Ukrainian military personnel". This is being done by those who manufacture and deliver these strike systems to Ukraine, Putin stressed, warning that NATO countries must “be aware of what they are playing with”.
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev on May 31 also stated that all long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine already are “directly controlled by military personnel of NATO countries and such actions may be grounds for retaliation".