In a major policy reversal, U.S. President Joe Biden decided over the weekend to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-supplied short-range missiles deep into Russian territory, a move that Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in September would put Russia at war with the United States.
Biden’s move likely will complicate President-elect Trump’s determination to quickly end the war.
Former CIA operations officer Charles Sam Faddis described Biden’s decision as "lighting the fuse on World War III and walking out the door."
Biden’s decision will allow Ukraine to attack targets in Russia with the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACM), a short-range tactical ballistic missile with a maximum range of 180 miles.
The UK and France reportedly may respond to Biden’s decision by allowing Ukraine to fire their longer-range missiles into Russia.
Unnamed Biden administration officials told reporters that President Biden’s move was in response to a massive Russian missile and drone attack against Ukraine’s infrastructure on Saturday and reports that North Korea is sending thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian troops in the Ukraine War.
This explanation is hard to take seriously because there have been constant calls for over a year for the Biden administration to remove restrictions on Ukraine firing U.S. missiles into Russia. Biden previously refused to agree to this because he was concerned about escalating the war.
So why did Biden suddenly decide to let Ukraine begin attacking targets deep inside Russia with U.S.-supplied missiles just after Donald Trump won the 2024 election?
Some of Biden’s allies claim he made this decision to give Ukraine leverage in peace talks that President-elect Trump has pledged to convene, possibly before he is inaugurated.
This argument doesn’t make sense because Biden’s decision may escalate the war and make it harder to convince the Russian leader to cease hostilities and agree to a cease-fire.
If Biden was truly interested in ending the war in Ukraine and helping bring about a cease-fire, he should be pressing both parties to de-escalate instead of giving one party the green light to step up its attacks.
Biden also should be supporting President-elect Trump’s call to stop the killing in Ukraine and implement a cease-fire as soon as possible.
I'm concerned the real reason that Biden agreed to let Ukraine start firing U.S. missiles deep into Russia was because he opposes Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts and is trying to sabotage them.
This would be consistent with Biden’s disastrous approach to the Ukraine War of arming Ukraine for "as long as it takes" to evict Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory, even though this conflict has become a war of attrition that Ukraine is certain to lose. Biden has never shown any interest in a peace agreement or cease-fire that falls short of this goal.
My hope is that Ukrainian and Russian leaders will ignore this feckless 11th-hour foreign policy decision by President Biden and prepare for strong and principled global leadership by President Donald Trump who has promised to begin a fair process to end the war in Ukraine quickly.
Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member. Read more of his reports — Click Here Now.