Yet another “red line” has been crossed in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Long had the West hesitated to deliver tanks to Kyiv, but no more. On the fence, they wondered if they should equip Ukraine with American F-16 fighters. They’re on their way. While they had previously supplied artillery and medium-range missiles to their Ukrainian ally, it could only use them against Russian forces deployed on its territory, not across the border. No longer.
The battle for Kharkiv has broken the last red line Europeans and Americans seemed to have set themselves at the very start of the war. Since May 10, the Russians have subjected Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the north of the country, to daily bombings. Their targets are residential buildings and civil and political infrastructures. The beautiful Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometers from Russia. People here used to have family and work on both sides of the border.
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The West used to argue that no direct missile attack should target the territory of the world’s second-largest nuclear power. But Vladimir Putin is using and abusing the threat of nuclear weapons to wage a conventional war. Sheltered by its force of mass destruction, Russia is sanctuarizing its territory and, from there, “conventionally” bombing its Ukrainian neighbors.
They know where the missiles are coming from, they are aware of the Russian logistics chains deployed along the border and they can see their adversary preparing artillery batteries and missile launch pads.
America’s strong reticence
But their means of retaliation were limited. Kyiv was forbidden from using Western weapons against Russian territory. Or at least it was until this spring, when the renewed assault on Kharkiv demonstrated the virtual impossibility of maintaining a cautious position in the face of Putin’s escalation. Europeans and later Americans lifted their veto on the use of Western weapons. They can now be used for retaliation just across the border – not deep strikes – and against military targets, with all the possible firing errors it entails.
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The United States was the most reticent. It’s as if Joe Biden felt bound by some kind of code of good conduct between the great nuclear powers: nearly 6,000 warheads on the Russian side; around 5,300 on the American side. Since the start of the war in February 2022, America’s aid to Kyiv has been carefully dispensed. It has been calibrated to the smallest detail, under the long-held but always denied illusion of a possible negotiation with Putin on the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
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Source link : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/06/07/the-battle-of-kharkiv-has-broken-the-red-line-that-europeans-and-americans-seemed-to-have-set-for-themselves-at-the-start-of-the-war_6674070_23.html
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Publish date : 2024-06-07 19:53:50
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