In Russia, they are trying to use threats to prevent the USA from allowing Ukraine to strike deep into the Russian Federation – ISW

Atacms. Illustrative photo: Getty Images

According to the analysts of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian officials are resorting to repeated threats to deter the US from granting permission to Ukraine to fire ATACMS missiles deep into the Russian Federation.

Source: ISW

Details: Russian officials continued to resort to threatening rhetoric in an attempt to dissuade the United States from publicly authorizing Ukraine’s use of US-provided ATACMS missiles to launch limited strikes against Russian and North Korean military targets in the Kursk region.

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Literally ISW: “Such a U.S. authorization, if officially confirmed, would be a mild response to Russia’s escalating involvement of North Korean troops as active combatants in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Details: Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said on November 18 that the United States was “adding fuel to the fire” and that the US authorization of Ukrainian strikes with ATACMS missiles on Russian military facilities would be “a new round of tensions and a qualitative change in US involvement in the war.”

Peskov reiterated Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s September 12 statement that Ukrainian strikes against Russia using Western-provided weapons would escalate and directly involve Western countries in the war.

Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA) spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also echoed Putin’s September statements, saying that Ukraine’s long-range missile strikes on Russia would “fundamentally change the nature and character” of the war, and that the Russian response would be “adequate and tangible.”

Literally ISW: “Individual Russian officials and propagandists have emphasized that US officials have yet to officially confirm authorization for ATACMS strikes, likely in an attempt to persuade the United States to back off the decision and deny media reports of such authorization.”

ISW Key Findings for 18 November:

• Russian officials continued to use threatening rhetoric in an attempt to dissuade the United States from publicly authorizing Ukraine’s use of US-supplied ATACMS to launch limited strikes against Russian and North Korean military targets in the Kursk region. Such US permission, if it is officially confirmed, will be, in particular, a mild response to Russia’s escalation of the participation of North Korean troops as active combatants in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Putin’s introduction of North Korea as a new belligerent in his invasion of Ukraine was a significant escalation. Permitting Ukraine to use US missiles against legitimate military targets on Russian territory under all international and armed conflict laws is a very limited response and cannot reasonably be characterized as escalation in itself.
• French and British sources explained on November 18 that US authorizations for Ukraine’s use of ATACMS to launch limited strikes on Russian territory do not extend to Ukraine’s use of SCALP and Storm Shadow missile systems provided by France and Great Britain to launch long-range strikes against Russia.
• The Kremlin continues to declare its reluctance to accept any compromises, including those that would “freeze” the conflict on the current front line, which once again demonstrates the Kremlin’s persistent desire for the complete surrender of Ukraine.
• Recently, Russian troops advanced on the main Ukrainian section of the front in the Kursk region, in the Kupyansk region, west of Kreminnaya, as well as in the Siversky, Pokrovsky and Vugledarsky directions.
• The Kremlin continues to militarize various levels of Russian government by expanding the “Time of Heroes” program, which aims to appoint veterans of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine to positions in local, regional and federal government.
• The Ministry of Defense of Russia illegally conscripted Ukrainian youth in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of the fall 2024 conscription.