Don’t Block Ukraine from Targeting Russian Weapons Factories – The United States and many other Western countries continue to supply Ukraine with weapons to fight Russia’s invasion and occupation.
Ukraine has done an admirable job of exposing Russia’s weakness and degrading its armed forces. In less than a year, Ukraine estimates Russia has lost more than 100,000 soldiers, a figure greater than the entire military of Australia and equivalent to Canada’s entire army.
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In addition, Ukraine has destroyed or captured thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, 285 aircraft, 272 helicopters, and 16 ships and boats. That Global Firepower continues to rank Russia as the second most powerful military in the world is risible.
The White House, however, continues to impose restrictions on Ukrainian weaponry. It balks at providing Ukraine weapons systems that can strike into Russian territory, and even demands that Ukraine refrain from using American weaponry to strike into Russia-occupied Crimea.
After refusing for months to provide Ukraine with high-precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the Biden administration finally reversed course but then secretly modified the system to prevent it from firing long-range rockets into Russia.
This is bad policy on two levels. First, if the White House seeks artificially to limit the conflict to within Ukraine’s borders, it removes the cost to Russia of continuing conflict. Second, while Ukraine degrades Russian equipment and shoots down or absorbs Russian missile strikes, numerous Russian factories work overtime to resupply the Russian military.
President Joe Biden may not want Ukrainian drones striking the Kremlin, and he need not worry about Ukrainians bombing Moscow apartment blocks the way Vladimir Putin did when he sought a casus belli against Chechnya.
Ukraine Needs a New Way to Pressure Russia
There are still many military factories in the Moscow region that deserve to be hit:
-The Lutch Design Office in Rybinsk, about 165 miles north of Moscow
-The Tactical Missile Corporation, Raduga Design Bureau in Dubna about 80 miles north of the capital
-The NPO Mashinostroyeniya rocket design bureau in Reutov, 14 miles to the east of Moscow
-The Tactical Missile Corporation, TRV Engineering in Korolev, 17 miles to the northeast of Moscow.
That the United States and many European states sanction each of these for their involvement in the Ukraine war only makes more illogical the fact that the White House shields them from the consequence of their action. At the very least, every employee in Moscow reporting to their factories should realize that each day could be their last.
The same holds true for Russians employed at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, which produces missiles ranging from Scuds to intercontinental ballistic missiles, in Votkinsk, 813 miles to Moscow’s east; or those working in similar factories in Yekaterinburg or Omsk.
Just as hundreds of thousands of Russian men fled their country to avoid conscription, enabling Ukraine to strike at even one of these factories could encourage military industry workers to consider the attractiveness of life outside Russia versus being burnt to a crisp in a factory for meagre pay.
Putin may froth and saber-rattle, but he is increasingly a laughingstock. His redlines have become increasingly meaningless. Ukrainians are willing to do the job. President Biden, let them. Stop opposing strikes into the heart of Russia.
Stop allowing Russia to resupply its missile arsenals.
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Paul Hoffman
January 7, 2023 at 9:13 am
Insane! Let’s launch a missile 800 miles into Russia. Oh, look it’s a bird it’s a plane no it’s a missile. Launch our Nuclear Arcenal.
That’s the ticket!
Mike
January 7, 2023 at 9:34 am
The Ukraine War is going badly for Russia today . The losses are diabilitating Russia’s numbers in troops and hardware. It won’t be long to where Putin is shoot by his own or removed by his own Military. Any Nation that supplies Ukraine with the ability to hit Russia had better warn their People/Population that they could be bombed . Ukraine is ” Not Worth that ” . Ukraine has been Corrupt since its breakaway from the USSR in 1994 . Even today way too much money and hardware provided by the US cannot be accounted for . Attrition is working for Ukraine today there is no need to push this into a Nuclear Showdown…. .
Serhio
January 7, 2023 at 9:51 am
The author is a complete and unconditional fool. He seems to think that there is not a single person in the United States who sympathizes with Russia. And that these sympathetic people will not be able to buy a drone and stuff it with several kilograms of explosives. Or is the author sure that all strategically important objects in the United States are covered by an impenetrable air defense dome? In fact, after the collapse of the USSR, several dozen (if not hundreds) left for the USA thousands of citizens of the former USSR. Only God knows how many of them are Putin’s well-trained saboteurs. Now imagine that each of these people, being several kilometers away from some kind of storage of oil, gas or diesel, lifts a small drone with explosives into the air. Remember the fire in Freeport. And what will happen if there are thousands of such fires? And will Putin be tormented by remorse when he gives the order to blow up America from the inside?
Ajeocci
January 7, 2023 at 11:26 am
It’s really sad that so many otherwise intelligent Americans get their news from CNN, MSNBC, and the other Mockingbird Media. There has been an unprecedented propaganda campaign against Russia, and 99% of it is simply untrue. Americans seem incapable of determining truth from fiction. For instance, early on in the Ukraine reporting, CNN showed a massive, night time blast, purported to be a Russian missile strike on a hospital. It was actually file footage of a blast in China in 2015. And the film of the Bucha “war crimes” was staged, complete with cloth dummies reported as “civilians massacred by Russian troops.” The fact is, Putin is Russia’s White Hat, just as Trump is America’s. The U.S. and NATO are fighting a proxy war against Russia, using the Ukrainian people as pawns. NATO has been aggravating a war for a decade or more. Also, Ukraine is the most corrupt nation in the world, and the primary money laundry for the Washington, DC elites. That’s why they continue to dump billions of taxpayer dollars into Ukraine. They, and their Defense Contractor buddies are getting wealthy, while at the same time, depleting our stockpiles of necessary war materials. It’s insanity, but money overcomes judgement. And Russia is winning the conflict, hands down. As NATO dumps more and more equipment into Ukraine, Russia simply ramps up their efforts. Soon, they will launch a massive operation and Ukraine will be toast. Ukraine will never again be the country it was.
Paddy Manning
January 7, 2023 at 2:58 pm
Don’t you love when Russkibots threaten US installations? Round up the Russkibots
Steven
January 7, 2023 at 8:43 pm
Why are Russians so delusional? They live in their own reality, and it is warped.
Cheburator
January 8, 2023 at 4:34 am
Bravery and stupidity. At least you understand that Russia can regard this as an act of war.
Whatever the enthusiastic cries in the media, Ukraine is losing.
And now we are opening a new Russian nuclear doctrine – the Russian Government wrote in black and white in it that it would not fight superior opponents with the help of conventional weapons.
And you propose to give Ukraine the weapon that will allow us to consider that the United States has entered the war.
The US government may deny this, but in Odessa (Southern Ukraine there is such an expression – “Beating in the face and not on the identity card”).
You say that Russia will not use nuclear weapons, but remember what the United States would do if Russia provided weapons to a third party, and these weapons were to strike at US territory.
So come to your senses morons, you are playing with matches in a puddle of gasoline.
Johnny Ray
January 8, 2023 at 9:56 pm
I fully support giving any and all aid, support and weapons to Ukraine in order to defeat the Russian Imperial Army. However, political imaging on the world stage DOES matter. Massive missile attacks on Russia would look really bad, but also give the war mongers in Russia credibility to demand a nuclear response. With that said.
I also say, just give Ukraine whatever they want for but attach some rules. Like limit cruise missile attacks to Crimea and Donbas area, and maybe a few military targets along the Russian border towns.
Taking out the Moscow and St. Pete power grid would be exceptionally tempting. However, at this point it would be politically disastrous on the world stage and really piss off the Russian population, in particular those who might think the war on Ukraine is NOT such a good idea. Until their lights went out. In the dead of winter.
TLDNR: Joe…just sign the check and send the stuff. Details can be worked out later.
Злой пьяный русский медведь с балалайкой
January 9, 2023 at 4:20 am
Where does this faith in the “angelic” and “omnipotent” West come from? The West has screwed up more than once all over the globe! But with the obsession of idiots, instead of starting to talk on equal terms with the rest of the world, respect other countries, their traditions, the West continues to consider itself the world’s gendarme, twist its arms, consider itself a god on Earth!
Cheburator
January 9, 2023 at 9:44 am
You are not friends with cause and effect relationships.
And now imagine the situation – Russia provides weapons to a third country and says – “This is in order to strike at a military facility in Nevada” – what will be the reaction of the United States – correctly, the United States will consider this an act of war.
So why should Russia think differently, in response to the supply of weapons to Ukraine capable of striking at Russian territory.
And if Russia considers that an act of war was committed against it, what will be the consequences for the NATO countries and will the paper be able to protect it from a nuclear strike?
Don’t play with matches in a puddle of gasoline, you’ll burn yourself.
Jim
January 9, 2023 at 11:08 am
There are three issues of import:
1. Escalation of the conflict… the weapons (missiles, drones) to reach manufacturing sites deep in Russia would be United States provided.
So, Russia immediately concludes, it’s the United States bombing Russia. Do you want to put in Putin’s hands the decision for General European War?
Or put in Putin’s hands a direct war between the U. S. and Russia… how long does that stay non-nuclear?
(Do you want to put something like that in the hands of somebody many in the West and the U. S. believe is crazy, insane, sick, dying, desperate… cuckoo?)
Why?
Because deep strategic strikes on military industries is justification of strikes into Nato territories for various military objectives.
In other words, General European War.
A question (rhetorical): Does the author want General European War?
(The author claims he doesn’t because Putin is too puny & cowardly to take action… but offers weak reasoning… about what is and what is not Putin’s “Red Lines”… does the author really believe Russia’s leadership would simply stand down… apparently.)
Because his proposal is a high probability recipe for General European War.
In this whole affair, my highest goal is to avoid General European War and the resultant death & destruction… the death of Europe, as we know it.
2. The role of neutral Nation-States is critical.
Say good by to persuading these neutral states, India for example, that somehow the Collective West is on the right side of this war after the West, via, Ukraine (really the U. S.) makes deep strikes into Russia, widening the scope of the war.
3. Western Europe and our Nato partners do not want to cause escalation which leads to a wider war which easily could lead to military strikes into their territory because the United States thought it would be a good idea to strike Russian military industries deep inside Russian Territory.
The author needs to explain why a General European War is the preferred outcome for the Ukraine Project.
Is the author a nihilist?
His plan leads to destruction… quite possibly, utter destruction & unimaginable death… to millions.
Monstrous!
Cheburator
January 9, 2023 at 3:05 pm
Jim
The problem of US citizens is that if Putin decides to go to war with NATO, he will not main strike at Europe – only military facilities will be struck there, and the main blow will be on US territory by all means, Biden and the neocons are trying to take Putin on a weak, persona with nuclear weapons and the possibility of their delivery, this is not North Korea with a dozen charges. And because of the stupidity and arrogance of neocons, millions of US citizens are at risk of dying in an instant.
It will not work out overseas like in World War II.
Serhio
January 9, 2023 at 9:28 pm
Cheburator
“The problem of US citizens is that if Putin decides to go to war with NATO, he will not main strike at Europe – only military facilities will be struck there, and the main blow will be on US territory by all means, Biden and the neocons are trying to take Putin on a weak, persona with nuclear weapons and the possibility of their delivery, this is not North Korea with a dozen charges. And because of the stupidity and arrogance of neocons, millions of US citizens are at risk of dying in an instant.”
I agree. Now many American media are considering the question: “Will Putin use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine?”. However, there are no targets for tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. It is designed to defeat large concentrations of troops. And there are no such accumulations of troops in Ukraine far from the civilian population now. Therefore, I believe that if the Russians are forced to use nuclear weapons, they will strike at the United States, England and along the line-Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Milan-Rome. To get a border from the radioactive desert between what remains of Western Europe and what remains of Russia. The United Kingdom and the United States will also cease to exist as strong, prosperous states.