Yesterday, US President Biden authorized Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles, called Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), against Russia for the first time since war broke out in February of 2022. Weapons will most likely be deployed against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region of Russia, according to reports in the New York Times.
This announcement comes on the heels of the re-election of former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to limit support for Ukraine, who himself has pushed for negotiations and claimed that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war “in a day.” Biden’s move could be seen as a last-ditch attempt to issue as much support for Ukraine as possible before Trump takes office. However, Trump’s pick of notorious war hawk Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State calls into question Trump’s stated commitment to peace.
According to socialist economist Professor Richard Wolff, Biden’s move “Makes [Democrats] the ‘pro-war party’ that will lose more elections.”
The “US allows a lame duck President, too old to run again to escalate the Ukraine war by permitting long-range missiles that risk nuclear war with Russia,” Wolff said.
Left parties in Europe have also reacted negatively to Biden’s decision. The German party “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance: Reason and Justice” (BSW), which explicitly stands against sanctions against Russia and weapons shipments to Ukraine, stated that Biden is risking a “world war.”
“Shortly before the handover of power, the US Democrats are escalating again,” BSW stated. “They don’t seem to care at all that Kamala Harris lost the election because of her Ukraine policy. But more and more weapons and range will not end the war. Only real negotiations and initiatives for a ceasefire can do that! The dying must finally stop!”
Biden used his platform at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to condemn Russia. “The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should as well,” said Biden, as Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sat across from him at the G20 table. “And by the way, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine led to the highest record food prices in all of history,” Biden said, referencing the theme of the summit surrounding ending poverty and hunger, yet not acknowledging the role of Western sanctions in the same.
The US supplying of long-range missiles to Ukraine has been a Russian “red line” for years, and well before the war broke out, Russia was pushing NATO to remove its troops, strike missiles, and nuclear weapons from Russia’s Western border.
Russian officials condemned Biden’s move on Monday, claiming that it adds “fuel to the fire” of tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin in September marked a clear red line, stating if the West allows Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range missiles, this could lead to Russia using nuclear weapons. Allowing Ukraine to strike Russia would change “the very nature of the conflict dramatically,” Putin said in September. ”This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia.”
