This handout photo courtesy of the US Marine Corps obtained on April 27, 2022 shows US Marines Corps M777 towed 155 mm howitzers are staged on the flight line prior to being loaded onto a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at March Air Reserve Base, California, April 22, 2022. AFP
奥础厂贬滨狈骋罢翱狈鈥�In rallying global arms supplies and asking Congress for $33 billion more to support Ukraine, Washington is choosing to ignore Vladimir Putin鈥檚 threats to use nuclear arms, and instead is openly testing the Russian leader鈥檚 limits.
After the United States brought 40 countries to a US base in Germany last week to discuss aid for Ukraine鈥檚 war with Russia, Putin on Wednesday threatened a 鈥渓ightning fast鈥� response if there is any direct intervention by outsiders on Kyiv鈥檚 behalf.
鈥淲e have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We won鈥檛 boast about it: we鈥檒l use them, if needed,鈥� Putin said.
It was a thinly veiled reference to Russia鈥檚 tactical nuclear weapons, which Russian military doctrine holds can be used to force an adversary to retreat.
Rather than pull back at that threat to unleash Moscow鈥檚 nuclear bombs, US President Joe Biden doubled down on US support for Ukraine.
The $33 billion he requested includes $20 billion for arms and munitions, nearly seven times the amount sent to the country since the Russians invaded on February 24.
No longer hiding support
Early in the war Washington worried that aggressively equipping Ukraine鈥檚 army with anything but 鈥渄efensive鈥� weaponry risked embroiling the US and Nato in a direct conflict with Russia.
Now, the Pentagon has shed those earlier inhibitions and is shipping offensive weapons like heavy artillery, helicopters and attack drones.
Rather than hiding it, the Pentagon also began openly talking this week about how it is training Ukrainian troops, including inside Germany, to use the weapons they are receiving.
And instead of saying, as it did in February, that it wants only to help Ukraine survive, Washington now says its goal in the war is to debilitate Russia for the long term.
鈥淲e want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can鈥檛 do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,鈥� US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after a visit to Kyiv last week.
Shrugging off Moscow鈥檚 threat
Inside the US government, Putin鈥檚 nuclear threat is being shrugged off.
Biden and his top officials have labeled Moscow鈥檚 nuclear threats 鈥渋rresponsible.鈥�
鈥淚t shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure in being able to do what they set out to do鈥� in Ukraine, Biden said Wednesday.
On Friday, a senior US defense official said that even as the Pentagon constantly monitor鈥檚 Russia鈥檚 nuclear force, 鈥淲e do not assess that there is a threat of the use of nuclear weapons and no threat to Nato territory.鈥�
Lawrence Freedman, professor emeritus at King鈥檚 College in London, said there are no signs that Russia is preparing to use its nuclear or chemical weapons in the Ukraine conflict.
鈥淚ts threats are taken less seriously than before and it has nothing positive to offer. It is already a diminished power,鈥� Freedman wrote on his blog.
That view was echoed by Gideon Rose of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
鈥淢oscow will not use nuclear weapons during the conflict,鈥� said Rose.
Putin 鈥渒nows that extraordinary retaliation and universal opprobrium would follow, with no remotely comparable strategic upsides to justify them,鈥� he said.
Even if Biden has repeatedly said that US troops will not get directly involved in Ukraine, the surge in support has turned the conflict into a proxy war, Sam Winter-Levy, a warfare specialist at Princeton University, wrote on the website 鈥淲ar on the Rocks.鈥�
鈥淭he West needs to be clear-eyed about the situation it confronts. It is currently waging a proxy war with Russia 鈥� one that poses very real risks of escalation,鈥� he wrote.
Nevertheless, he said the current path 鈥渕ay still be the best option.鈥�
鈥淯ltimately, the only options worse than a proxy war are a cheap Russian victory in Ukraine 鈥� or a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States,鈥� he said.
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