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wow. kudos for being the "now that it's too late to have an impact, i'm going to do the thing i should have done many months ago" president

Now give them a thousand tomahawks and the location of every single Putin palace.

Too late.

Americans chose to abandon Ukraine when they elected Donald Trump and his Republican enablers.

Russia will win, there will be one less democratic nation on the planet, Russia will expand their borders, and Europe/NATO will be threatened.

Thanks conservatives, 3rd party voters, single issue voters, and non-voters. You really thought this one through.

I believe NYT makes you login, even on a gift link. Here is a TLDR:

President Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike Russian and North Korean forces in Russia, a significant shift in U.S. policy. This decision comes in response to Russia’s introduction of North Korean troops into the conflict and their anticipated assault on Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.

The move reflects growing concerns over Ukraine’s ability to withstand simultaneous assaults while defending territory. The authorization aims to bolster Ukraine’s defense, target high-value military assets, and deter North Korean involvement. However, it has sparked debate among U.S. officials over escalation risks, as Russia might retaliate against the U.S. or its allies.

President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to reduce U.S. support for Ukraine, is set to take office in two months, adding urgency to the decision. The Ukrainian strategy may include using captured Russian territory in Kursk as leverage in potential future negotiations. Meanwhile, the risk of Russian countermeasures remains a central concern for Biden’s administration and its allies.

My take: I’ve been waiting on this since the US election. It’s sound strategy of we believe Putin won’t want to escalate with NATO before Trump takes office.

About time

While they won't be able to reach Moscow with these, even from within Kursk, I am willing to bet the authorization was withheld on intelligence grounds. A lot of things in the war make sense if you look at it from the perspective that arms support can't be guaranteed.

Instead of letting Ukraine just burn through weapons, the US and allies have waited until they have the full operational capability to deploy the weapons with extreme effectiveness. They've had ATACMS for a while, so I suspect they held off deep strikes until the most effective targets had been identified and the likelihood of effective strike was near certain.

Better late than never, I guess.

Kremlin. Go for Kremlin.

I’m seeing a lot of comments taking this literally or saying why didn’t he do this before –

You all realise this is a very powerful symbolic gesture, right? This is a diplomatic move, not a literal one. The president of the US would never strike at this time in this kind of proxy war, and this is the closest ‘fuck you’ he can issue at Russia (which, again, would not be said aloud).

There’s nothing the US president could do to poke the Russian bear –other than escalate it to a hot war – other than this. This is an outgoing diplomatic move, and that is all.

Kill those Russians. Target the North Korean troops.

They only have 300 km range. They are very nice but still. Pretty sure Ukraine has struck further inland with drones.

There's obviously no logic whatsoever in allowing Russia to attack Ukraine freely from within its own borders while Ukraine is allowed to only defend inside its own borders. And Russia even thinks Crimea is part of Russia by some fucked up kindergarten bully logic.

No war ever in the history of mankind has followed such logic and neither does this one. If Russia threatens the use of nuclear weapons, then it is doing that without any sensible reason and it might have just as well done that without any war going on anywhere.

Good move by Biden.