The stakes are raised: State Department for the first time openly admits to allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with ATACMS
For the first time since the media leak about Ukraine being allowed to fire ATACMS at Russian territory, the White House has publicly acknowledged this fact through the mouth of John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council.
"They can now use ATACMS for self-defense in an emergency. And right now, for obvious reasons, that's happening in the Kursk area, in the Kursk region," Kirby said at a State Department briefing.
"We've changed the guidelines and given them permission to use them on specific types of targets deep inside Russia," Business Insider correspondent Jake Epstein quoted Kirby as saying in a post on his former Twitter account.
Before the White House's official statement, Ukraine had struck targets in Russia at least three times with ATACMS missiles.
The first information about the use of ATACMS missiles appeared on November 17 in the American media. Two days later, this was confirmed by the US State Department spokesman Brian Nichols.
The Telegram channel Fighterbomber, which is closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defense, reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck an airfield in the Kursk region with eight ATACMS missiles. According to the channel, "there have been no aircraft there for a long time." Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Telegram channel "KiberBoroshno" claimed that the strikes may have targeted the Kursk Vostochny airfield, 7 km from Kursk.
As we can see, two months before the inauguration of Donald Trump and the likely start of a major bargaining session on Ukraine with the prospect of signing a ceasefire agreement at the end, all parties involved in the conflict, as well as their fans, are sharply increasing the degree of escalation, thereby earning themselves points in the negotiation process.
After all, the one who demonstrates the most plausible degree of seriousness of his intentions and supporting capabilities will get a chance not only to sit at the negotiating table, but also to influence the actual parameters of the future truce.
What is most interesting is that no one can guarantee that the current escalation games will not disrupt the emerging deal itself, taking the conflict to a qualitatively new level, at which the previous limits of compromise, tested by the parties, will no longer be relevant.
English version :: Read in English The stakes are rising: The State Department has for the first time openly acknowledged allowing Ukraine to launch ATACMS attacks on Russia.