For the US to target Putin’s nuclear defences is reckless beyond belief

By Rodney Atkinson, THE CONSERVATIVE WOMAN – June 17, 2024

THE West’s Ukrainian proxy war against Russia continues to go badly with Russian advances on all fronts and big Ukrainian troop losses. Even worse, the most belligerent political leaders (Biden, Macron and Sunak) are losing votes at home. French President Macron lost extremely badly in the European elections, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rallygarnering twice as many votes as Macron’s Renaissanceparty. This led Macron to call a snap general election, and there is talk of his resignation if he does not win.

In Hungary and Italy – two the most anti-war countries – the incumbents won easily, although Hungary’s Orbán lost seats while Italy’s Meloni gained seats. In Europe fewer than 10 per cent think Ukraine can win the war, and the majority think either Russia will win or there will be a compromise peace settlement.

In the UK the Conservative Party, firmly following the US neocon line on Ukraine and authorising its weapons to be used against Russian territory, is heading for a historically large defeat in the July 4 general election.

While voters in the West (prospective peacemakers Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr in the US are far more popular than warmonger Biden) express their fears about an escalation to an outright Russia/ Nato war, recent moves by the Russian navy both recall the 1963 Cuban missile crisis and remind the Americans of the equivalence of Russia in Cuba then and Nato in Ukraine today.

At the time Russia’s missiles in Cuba (within a few minutes’ flight of Washington DC) put the world on the edge of nuclear war. John F Kennedy stood firm and the missiles were withdrawn but this month, after some years of closer co-operation between Moscow and Havana, a group of Russian navy ships have arrived in Cuba. They include an Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate, which is capable of carrying Zircon hypersonic missiles, and the nuclear submarine Kazan.

The Biden administration’s decision to let Ukraine use long-range US weapons to target Russian territory to defend the Kharkov area is causing Russia to counter by targeting the American strategic reconnaissance UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) RQ-4 Global Hawk operating in the Black Sea. With Nato AWACS early warning aircraft, they have provided constant reconnaissance for the guidance of Nato missiles targeted at Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia region by Nato forces in the name of Ukraine. Such US military decisions could lead to a dangerous escalation and the prospect of direct Russian/American military confrontation.

This follows the Ukraine/American drone attack on the most sensitive Russian nuclear Early Warning System at Armavir. As Dr Theodore Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote: ‘The drones were guided to their targets using US aerial and satellite reconnaissance (they have to take multiple evasive actions in the course of their flights to evade Russian radar systems, and this can only be supplied via real-time targeting information provided by the US). The operators of the drones were likely mercenaries trained in the US or out-of-uniform US troops. Russia knows this and so it considers this a US attack on its nuclear Early Warning System. The attack was reckless beyond comprehension. ANY such attacks against the EWS system used to protect Russia from a nuclear attack can justify, under Russian law, a nuclear retaliatory strike.’

Justifying the gravest doubts about Biden’s frequent claims that the US does not want war with Russia, Nato has published plans for transporting troops across western Europe in the event of a war with Russia.

France recently announced it will donate Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train its pilots. Nato allies, including Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, committed to dispatching about 80 US-made F16 fighters to Ukraine. If these F16s are stationed in Ukraine they will be easy targets on the ground but if they are flown from neighbouring countries such as Romania those airfields could be targeted and trigger a Nato response under the mutual defence clause Article 5.

Given the blatant interventions of Nato countries not only with weapons systems but with trained operatives on the ground in Ukraine and targeting and missile guidance systems, President Putin is considering an equivalent involvement in other parts of the world.

‘We are thinking that if someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why do we not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where there will be strikes on the sensitive facilities of those countries that are doing this against Russia? We will think about this.’ 

There are several possibilities including North Korea (attacks on South Korea) and Iran (attacks on the UK in Cyprus or US gulf fleet).

Ukraine mutiny: A video has appeared which gives a snapshot of the Ukraine army’s mobilisation, loss of troops, lack of training, low morale and disloyalty. Three Ukrainian soldiers are talking on a train: ‘We had 20 per cent of the brigade left, the rest were dead. They wouldn’t even let us take their bodies. [Another voice] Because they didn’t want to pay for them. [Another voice] People are caught in the street and pushed to fight but they don’t know how to fight. And that’s it. No equipment, no ammunition, no arms. I tell you frankly if it were up to me I think so my brothers I think so we would go to Kiev with the Russians and all this would have been over a long time ago.’ 

The madness of this war grows as inadequate political players become more hysterical by the day. Only voters can put an end to this grave crisis. In elections in 2024 they are at last reacting.

This article appeared in Freenations, an alternative voice on the Ukraine war, on June 13, 2024, and is republished by kind permission.