Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-officials-question-if-easing-ukraine-weapons-restrictions-would-pay-off-2024-09-13/
Ukraine’s current military strategy is to go on the offensive against Russia. Moreover, Ukraine finds itself hoping to strike deeper within Russian territory to give themselves an edge against the Kremlin’s armed forces in the current conflict that is now 2 ½ years old. To do that, however, Ukraine is relying on the United States and its allies to provide offensive weapons such as the US long-range ATACMS missiles. But the US and its NATO allies are concerned that a stronger Ukrainian presence deeper within Russia would eventually backfire, causing Putin to strike back harder which would lead to a prolonging of the war. In fact, Putin warned, at the United Nations on September 13, that any Ukrainian attempts to utilize American or European military hardware to mount deeper into Russia would turn NATO into a bigger enemy of Russia, a nuclear power.
I think this article effectively highlighted the concerns of all parties involved, that being the Ukrainians seeking more effective offensive tactics, US officials concerned over the effects of authorizing weapons to Ukraine, and Russia obviously warning NATO and Ukraine against this endeavor. I feel, however, that Ukraine should focus on pushing Russia out of their eastern territories instead of embarking further within the enemy’s land. I think the US should remain wary about authorizing this weaponry as this could very well backfire against Ukraine and prolong this already 2 ½ year conflict, not to mention, significantly increase hostilities between Russia and the US/NATO. While I do think that Putin is simply trying to instigate fear within the enemy when mentioning that they are a nuclear power, that doesn’t mean Russia won’t push against Ukraine in general, it likely will strike western Ukraine and even Poland from Belarus as it is an ally of Russia. As for the US, it will have to be prepared for a Russian counter-response by revving up their security within Europe. Ultimately, I feel that Ukraine airstriking deeper into Russia creates new issues to resolve within the overall conflict for all stakeholders.
This whole situation provides a real life example of what we learned in class in terms of Russia’s poor geography and their need to claim buffer states in order to ensure their own security from invasions. The potential use of Belarus against western Ukraine, Kyiv, and Poland ties back to the discussion we had about the presence of buffer states in general and Russian foreign policy as a nuclear power in general.
