Biden greenlights ATACMS to hit Russia, spiting Trump. Russia missile strike targets Ukraine energy (Alexander Mercouris)

The latest news about the US authorisation to use long range missiles to hit targets in Russia is more of a political thing rather than it changing the outcome of the fighting. The Russians warned strongly against this, but they are very restrained, so, despite the rhetoric, they likely won't do anything to directly attack NATO countries. Ukrainian precision strikes of all kinds, using Western weapons, have very LIMITED success. They won't change the outcome of the war.

What this does is help Russia politically, since most of the rest of the world supports, or is sympathetic to Russia - because they understand that the US pushed the 2014 coup, and then provoked the (2022) escalation with Ukraine - shelling the breakaway regions in the East and talking about joining NATO. Any other country can see that this situation invited Russia to respond aggressively.

And so, here we are. This development will not do very much except that Russia could go into a higher State of War. Certainly they could ramp up the involvement of their allies in the conflict. Anyway, with the way things are going at the front, the fighting should end sometime in 2025. And if Trump gets in, with Tulsi Gabbard etc, all Russia needs to do is hang tight until the US withdraws its support in early 2025.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, November 19, 2024.]