On Monday, The New York Times reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden had granted Ukraine permission to fire American-made long-range rockets at targets in Russia.
“Missiles will speak for themselves”, Ukrainian President [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky had stated after the news broke.
Ukraine didn't waste any time and on early Tuesday morning, ATACMS missiles were fired into western Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, sixty miles from the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said of the six projectiles, air defence systems had intercepted five and damaged one. Reuters, however, claimed the Russians shot down just two of the missiles.
“This is, of course, a signal that they want to escalate”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a Group of 20 news conference in Brazil, said of the attack.
“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly”, he added, accusing Washington of helping Kiev operate the missiles. [Note: Russia has long asserted that the ATACMS is programmed by United States specialists and requires guidance from US satellites].
A day later, a second strike. It was lapdog UK's turn to give its consent. And the Ukrainian regime launched Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time, according to a Russian military blog and Reuters.
A Russian military blogger on Wednesday posted photos on Telegram of a Storm Shadow missile fragment, claiming that up to 12 of the UK-supplied missiles were fired on Russia’s Kursk region. The fragment was photographed in the Russian village of Marino, which is about 35 miles from the Ukrainian border. The fragment has engravings that say “Storm Shadow”.
The fragments in the photo were confirmed to be from a Storm Shadow missile by weapons expert Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US Army, according to CNN today.
And I would not be surprised if Germany decides to arm Ukraine with Taurus missiles. I betcha German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is tempted.
FYI, the Taurus KEPD-350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile that can travel at speeds of up to 1,170 kilometers per hour (727 miles per hour) – that's almost the speed of sound – to find a target that can be as far as 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The long-range missile flies at an altitude of only 35 meters, which makes it almost impossible for radar systems to detect.
In any case, it would seem that Ukraine is asking to be annihilated. And I have no doubt Russia will retaliate. It's payback time.
And if you ask me, Russia should nuke Kiev. It will serve as a timely warning to US, UK and other belligerents.
The Americans must have known they've overstepped their boundaries because they quickly shuttered their embassy there. Greece, Italy and Spain embassies followed suit.
The Asian champion, who received a first-round bye, won the second round match 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 in 26 minutes.
The fourth seeded Sivasangari will face world No. 13 Fayrouz Aboelkheir of Egypt for a place in the semi-finals.
There's no two ways about it – she must win!
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