Donald Trump’s election victory caused most people to think that the war between Russia and Ukraine would soon come to an end as the United States pulled back on its financial and military support for Ukraine, something the former president promised repeatedly. However, what was expected to be a quiet transition in America’s proxy war heated up dramatically after President Joe Biden reversed himself in order to allow Ukraine to fire US-made and US-operated ATACMS missiles up to 200 miles inside the Russian Federation. As Russian president Vladimir Putin had threatened to do, Russia quickly responded by updating its nuclear doctrine to authorize Russian military leaders to launch a nuclear strike against any nuclear-armed country that attacks Russia whether it uses nuclear or conventional weapons.
Now that has taken place. Ukraine used an ATACMS system to attack and ammunition storage facility in Russia. Now the US Embassy in Kyiv is closed in anticipation of a possible Russian air attack. Will Russia let it go, retaliate asymmetrically or go to DEFCON 4? Can Putin wait things out until January 20, and if he does, will it pay off? How close are we to World War III?
On today’s The TMI Show, co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan are joined by military and intelligence analyst Mark Sleboda, an expert on the war between Ukraine and Russia, to game out what comes next.
During the campaign, President-Elect Donald Trump promised to bring a rapid conclusion to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that began in 2022. But most Americans aren’t aware of how or why the war began in the first place. Now the waters are getting further muddied by a decision of President Biden, a lame duck with just two months left in his term, to allow Ukraine to fire long-range American missiles deep into Russia itself.
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