It should come as no surprise that the West is running for cover, proverbially, over the apparent use of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) to deliver a stark message over the failed use of US and British offensive weapons against the Russian Federation.
The title metaphorically suggests that the “game” of brinkmanship by Western leaders, particularly President Biden, risks yielding catastrophic consequences. His national security decisions are driven by short-term political motives. This has left him and what remains of the US Democratic Party politically vulnerable and strategically outmaneuvered.
The lame-duck administration’s decision to allow deep strikes with ATACMS, as well as the UK and French decision to allow deep strikes with the jointly produced Shadow Storm/SCALP missiles, was widely lauded in western media as a “gamer changer” despite previous warnings from Putin that, because of the technical nature of these weapons, and the need for the involvement of military personnel from the supplying countries in their use, any strikes deep inside Russia using them would directly involve the supplying country in the war.
On 19th November, the Ukrainians used the ATACMS system to try and strike a weapons depot in Karachev, 110km from the Russia-Ukraine border, luckily, Russian air defense troops rose to the occasion, reportedly shooting down five of the six missiles and damaging the sixth to the extent that it did no significant damage.
A further escalation by the West and Ukraine occurred on 20th November, with an attack using up to 12 Storm Shadow missiles on what the Ukrainians claimed was a command center in Maryno. While the extent of the damage caused is not known, the jubilant reaction by the UK media was both sickening and a sign that the UK government is fully involved.
What is truly ridiculous is that the justification for both the US and UK/France for deep strikes into Russia is the mythical 10,000 North Koreans strong that seem to be invisibly helping the Russians in Kursk. Although no evidence has ever been provided of NKPA troops in the conflict zone, the fantasy army is repeatedly used as an excuse for escalation by an increasingly desperate western leadership.
Another concerning factor is the silence from Trump over Biden’s authorization of deep strikes into Russia, with Russian officials becoming increasingly suspicious that the incoming administration has agreed with Biden regarding the use of such weapons.
Zelenksy’s inane comment that “The missiles will speak for themselves” was answered quickly by Putin’s “Yes, indeed they will” when, on 21st November, the Russians attacked the Yuzmash plant in Dnipro with the new Oreshnik (Hazelnut), claimed by western sources to be an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), using non-nuclear warheads which are believed to be kinetic energy weapons, striking their target at over Mach 10 (roughly 5km/second) in a terrifying display of accuracy and firepower.
Ironic Twist
What is especially ironic, is that the Yuzmash plant is the center of Ukrainian missile production, where it is believed the Ukrainians were working on their own IRBM system with Zelensky claiming in early November that the first 100 such missiles were already made.
The Oreshnik is a development of the RS-26 Rubezh ballistic missile, and equipped with a number of weapons containers that can carry MIRV (Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles) and is intended as an IRBM with a range of 5000km, and able to hit anywhere in Europe. It is classed as a hypersonic missile with a speed of Mach 10, and therefore unable to be intercepted by any current (or planned) Western air defense system.
It is interesting to note that, until 2019, the deployment of such weapons was not allowed by the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by the USSR and USA in 1987, until the US withdrawal under President Trump in 2019, where he claimed that Russia had violated the treaty by testing a cruise missile with a range of 3000km (the Russians denied this, claiming the missile was a battlefield missile with a range of 380km, and therefore allowed under the treaty) and also because China, North Korea, and Iran were developing missiles that would be banned if they were party to the treaty.
This last reason was particularly ridiculous, as Russia had repeatedly proposed not only strengthening the treaty, but expanding it to include all countries listed by the Americans, something the US refused to do. In addition, the Russian concern that the US Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) system being installed in Poland in 2018-19, and now operational as of 2024, could be used as an IRBM nuclear armed strike weapon was, of course, ignored by the USA.
Video of the strike on the Yuzmash plant would, you would like to think, be enough to make Western leaders take a step back and reconsider the direction the war is going, and their involvement in it.
Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be true, with the US presidential spokesperson (and I use that term loosely), Karine Jean-Pierre, claiming that the Russian use of the Oreshnik missile system was another escalation, even going so far as to claim “The escalation at every turn is coming from Russia” which, to be quite blunt, beggars belief, given the rhetoric coming out of Western capitals.
The Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh also commented:
“Yeah. I think it’s pretty clear and couldn’t be more black and white in what’s escalatory here. Russia invaded its sovereign neighbor. We can go back two years, continue to look at the facts. We’ve been very clear publicly and privately to Russia that we’re going to support Ukraine because another sovereign country doing that to its neighbors should not go unchecked”
It seems that she has, rather conveniently forgotten the causes of the war, in particular the Western sponsored overthrow of a democratically elected president of Ukraine, the western support for a genocidal campaign by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donbass region from 2014 to 2022, and the constant betrayals of Russia by “western partners” in both the Normandy Format and Minsk accords, as well as the constant escalations in supply of lethal weapons systems to the Ukrainians, which they then proceed to use against civilians, the presence of NATO “volunteers” in the UAF, and now the decision to allow deep missile strikes into Russia,
Russian Patience ran out!
It is obvious that Russian patience is completely exhausted. As stated by Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation:
“I, like tens of thousands of soldiers on the front line, have been waiting for such a statement by the Supreme Commander for a long time. It’s time, in response to such enemy strikes, to cover their rear military facilities with TNT so that no stone is left unturned. They are sitting there in the West, you see, warm and quite calm. So let them feel firsthand what a real war is. It’s time to give a powerful blow also to the objects of those states that are afraid to openly admit their participation in the war, It is necessary to demonstrate the full murderous power of Russian long-range weapons, so that not only the Ukrainian Nazis, but the entire West would shudder with fear and despair before our advanced military developments. Did they want a real war with Russia? So let them get their fill of it! I support our Supreme Commander—in-chief!”
Needless to say, the Western backed dictator of Ukraine, Zelensky, called the attack a “Severe escalation” and demanded a “tough response”:
“Right now, there is no strong reaction from the world. Putin is very sensitive to this. He is testing you, dear partners. … He must be stopped. A lack of tough reactions to Russia’s actions sends a message that such behaviour is acceptable. This is what Putin is doing.”
While the Ukrainian Rada decided to cancel upcoming sessions, as they do not want to be the next target for such a strike, which is rather hilarious after their claims on the 1000th day of the war that they would not let anything Russia does change the way they carry out their duties.
Unwavering NATO support for Ukraine
The usual suspects in the west, including the vile Keir Starmer, claimed that “Russian nuclear rhetoric” wouldn’t change NATO support for Ukraine, though he has been noticeably silent since the Dnipro strike, and it is noted that Russian TV has been showing where Russian Strategic Rocket Troops may strike in the case of further escalation, with particular emphasis on the UK, hardly surprising given the intense vitriol, even racism, towards Russians shown by the British establishment.
What is certain, is that the US and UK are now up to their eyeballs in this SMO, trying to turn it into a war; however, the question remains, do any of these western leaders have the brains necessary to change course, or would they rather see their own populations burn in nuclear fire rather than admit they were wrong to back a bunch of neo-Nazi psychopaths in Ukraine?
One can ask the question “Who do western leaders hate more, the Russians, Ukrainians, or their own people?”
The current news from the front lines shows that the UAF is collapsing at an ever-increasing rate under the accelerating onslaught of the Russian military, and their western backers are growing increasingly desperate.
It is obvious that the Ukrainian government will continue escalating until the country’s pronouns are “Was/Were”, the question is, will Europe and the US follow them?
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Seth Ferris, investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs
