The US has expressed its willingness to deploy weapons on the Russian border to Ukraine

U.S. leaves Ukraine to decide whether to use U.S. weapons for attacks on Russian territory. Defense expert Patrick Boulder calls the move a ‘major policy shift’. “It was previously stated that it was not allowed to be stationed on Russian territory.”

However, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the U.S. “does not encourage” the use of its weapons to attack the Russian border, but he is giving Ukraine the option to do so. “This is definitely related to the raids that started last Friday from the Belgorod region, bordering northeastern Ukraine,” Boulder points out. “Russian troops mass on Russian border.” A security expert at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies expects the US’s disguised permission to allow Ukraine to station weapons there.

Exercises

Boulder expects angry reactions from the Kremlin to the new step. That again leads to reactions like ‘you’re escalating things here, bringing us closer to nuclear war’. But we have been hearing for a long time that the West is supplying more weapons each time.

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Boulder believes the next step is near, as the U.S. is now giving Ukraine more room to decide how it will use its weapons. Ukraine wants Western soldiers to come to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops. ‘French President Macron said a few months ago that it was not a bad idea to think about it. It’s not a crazy idea, but where does it end?, Boulder wonders. He sees the risk of outright war between Russia and the West. ‘I’ll have to think about it.’

Air defense

However, he points out that the West has already provided Ukraine with everything it can offer in terms of equipment. So the next step will be to provide ground troops, Boulder thinks. ‘It will first be in western Ukraine to train Ukrainians. It’s very safe.’ Additional security measures must be taken to ensure that Western soldiers are adequately protected. ‘If you deploy Patriot and other air defense systems in Romania and Poland on Ukraine’s border, you’re also protecting Western trainers there.’

Boulder believes that training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine makes sense from a logistical point of view. ‘If you first bring those Ukrainians to Great Britain for training it will take a long time. And then it is better to train them in Ukraine itself. It’s cheap and very fast.’ He notes that ‘many European countries’ consider it a ‘genuine plan’.

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