US PRESIDENT Joe Biden is throwing ‘oil on the fire’ and escalating the war by the imperialist nations on Russia, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, warned yesterday.
He was responding to the decision by Biden to lift the restrictions on the use of long-range American ATACMS missiles on targets deep inside Russian territory.
This, Peskov insisted, would directly involve the United States in the war against Russia because ‘the targets are set not by Ukrainian military but by specialists from the Western countries. That fundamentally changes the modality of their engagement.’
He said there was no change in the position outlined by President Vladimir Putin in September, that he would consider strikes by US-made weapons on Russian soil as direct involvement of NATO in the conflict.
Peskov added that Russia was only aware of the decision by Biden from reports in the Western media and had received no official confirmation from the US administration.
The lack of any official confirmation that the US is preparing to use long range ballistic missile attacks deep into Russian territory was explained by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky who gleefully said on Sunday evening: ‘Strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves.’
Securing permission to use Western weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory was part of the ‘victory plan’ promised in September by Zelensky, a plan he presented to both Biden and president-elect Donald Trump.
ATACMS missiles have been provided to Ukraine by the US since April, but until now the US has limited their use except against land considered by the US to be Ukrainian territory.
Now, in a dramatic escalation, Biden has given permission for these hypersonic missiles to be used to target Russian positions and cities deep inside Russia itself.
A report in the New York Times on Sunday stated: ‘The move is a significant escalation and may provoke a direct response from Moscow,’ as Putin has repeatedly warned that any attacks on Russian soil with American-supplied weaponry would be seen as NATO entering directly into the war leading to severe repercussions – including retaliation against Western interests.
What emerges from this decision is that in the last weeks of his dying presidency Biden is determined to escalate the war, even risking World War III, in the struggle to keep NATO’s Ukrainian attack dog from total defeat – a defeat that would be a crushing blow to the imperialist strategy of weakening Russia and opening the country up to unfettered capitalist exploitation.
Putin recently updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine to say that if Moscow came under direct attack from the West, Russia may even consider a nuclear response.
The threat of a war that would rage across Europe and the world with even the grave possibility of it becoming nuclear is not enough to deter US imperialism and its allies.
What is clear is that, in dropping his previous position of avoiding the direct involvement of the US in Ukraine’s proxy war on behalf of imperialism, Biden is now determined to create a real shooting war involving US weaponry and military personnel in the last days of his administration.
This would create conditions that the incoming president Trump, who has publicly campaigned for an immediate end to the Ukrainian war, will be unable (even if he really wants to) to carry out his pledge.
While the UK government had not responded on Monday there can be no doubt about Labour prime minister Keir Starmer’s enthusiastic support for war after he said at the weekend that ‘we need to double down’ on support for the Ukraine.
Biden has now given the green light for Starmer to follow suit and approve UK long range missiles already supplied to Ukraine to be fired against targets in Russia, bringing the UK, along with other EU countries, into direct involvement in the war.
The working class in the US, UK and Europe must now step forward and use their strength to put an end to imperialist war by immediately calling mass strikes to bring down their governments and take power, going forward to workers’ governments and socialism.
This is the only way forward.
