Eurasia Press & News
Officials in Moscow warned the U.S. would get sucked into the war in Ukraine if it sends Kyiv a new sophisticated American missile system.
Russia on Thursday threatened the U.S. with new forms of military escalation if it follows through on reported plans to send Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine, saying it would invariably become directly involved in the war.
“Such a step … would lead to an escalation of the conflict and increase the risk of direct involvement of the American army in hostilities,” warned Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on Thursday.
Zakharova did not offer specifics on what the escalation would entail but said Russia believes the U.S. has accelerated pressure on its NATO allies to engage in new forms of military and economic support for Ukraine that Moscow considers dangerous acts of provocation.
Though the U.S. has not openly confirmed the proposed shipment of the highly sophisticated surface-to-air rocket defense systems, unnamed officials have told several news outlets the Biden administration is in the final planning stages to begin deliveries as soon as next week, prompting outrage from the Kremlin.
President Joe Biden has defined his support for Ukraine with a precarious balance between accommodating Kyiv’s insatiable need for weapons, supplies and ammunition to beat back the Russian invaders while also not introducing military infrastructure into the former Soviet state that would prompt Russia to expand its war, to include against the NATO alliance. Putin has justified his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a preemptive defense against threats from Kyiv and its Western backers – a framing that a vast majority of the Russian people believe.
Yet some dangerous military escalations have already begun. The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday shared a video it said showed the loading of an intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo launcher in a town in western Russia. The Yars missile has a nuclear warhead, and Moscow has previously test fired it in October as a part of pre-planned nuclear weapons exercises.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has repeatedly said that Russia would consider Patriot missile batteries in Ukraine to be legitimate military targets – a conspicuous assertion for a government whose military has not held back from targeting civilian infrastructure indiscriminately.
Representatives for the departments of State and Defense declined to confirm the specific consideration of Patriot missile shipments publicly. But they acknowledged requests from the Ukrainian government for new tools to help defend against the increased volume and devastation of Russian missile and drone attacks.
“In light of Russia’s cruel and continued heavy bombardment of innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, we’ll continue to have those discussions and look at capabilities that they’ll need to defend their territory,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.
Several analysts – along with critics of the Biden administration’s approach to supporting Ukraine – believe the shipments are long overdue.
Sending the missile systems to Ukraine “would greatly aid the Ukrainians in defending their urban centers, power grid, and other critical infrastructure. While Ukraine has demonstrated a remarkable ability to repel waves of Iranian-made drones deployed by Russia, the PATRIOT systems would be a welcome upgrade for Kyiv,” private intelligence firm The Soufan Center concluded in a new analysis note.
Others with deep experience in the region have warned that Patriots would not serve as a quick-fix to the catastrophes that Ukraine’s military and civilian population faces now.
“Unless there’s been secret training going on for months, ‘approval’ doesn’t mean those systems will be on the battlefield immediately,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a former top commander for operations in Europe, tweeted on Tuesday. “Patriots require months of operator & maintenance training.”
Hertling added that these systems function differently than other mobile rockets that the Ukrainians have had great success fielding, like the HIMARS.
“Most do not understand Patriot is a different kind of kit, and there aren’t that many of them,” he added.
The burgeoning standoff comes at a particularly tenuous time for Ukraine as the nearly year-long conflict settles into winter. Russia’s strategy of attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure has succeeded in eliminating sources of heat from millions of civilians, while a hardening ground makes it easier for both sides to deploy fighting vehicles.
Meanwhile, Putin himself faces new pressure at home to end the war that increasingly affects the lives of average Russians.
The U.S. announced new sanctions on Thursday against several Russian commercial export companies and close allies of Putin’s in an attempt to further punish the president’s inner circles. Among the new moves includes seizing the yacht “Nirvana” of Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs and a close Putin ally.
“Our actions today are a clear message that the United States will not hesitate to continue to use the tools at our disposal to promote an end to, and accountability for, President Putin’s unconscionable war,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
