16 Time June 20/June 27, 2022
WORLD
Biden balances military aid
and escalation risk in Ukraine
BY W.J. HENNIGAN
cluding from Zelensky himself, that HIMARS
would be used solely as a defensive weapon and
not fired into Russian territory, the officials say.
As a safeguard, the rockets that the Administra-
tion decided to provide have a maximum range
of around 48 miles, the officials said, rather than
more advanced HIMARS munitions, some of
which can travel up to 300 miles.Such deliberation haS become a recur-
ring theme in Washington’s engagement in the
three-month-old fight in Ukraine. From the
start, Biden has been pushed to send additional
shipments of sophisticated American-made
arms. Every few weeks, he faces the same di-
lemma: How far can the U.S. go to provide mili-
tary aid without escalating to open war between
its NATO allies and Russia? Finding the balance
is the driving factor behind every aid decision
inside the White House and Pentagon since
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the
Feb. 24 invasion, officials say. “We are mindful
of the escalation risk,” Colin Kahl, Under Sec-
retary of Defense for Policy, told reporters at
the Pentagon after the decision to provide the
HIMARS systems to Kyiv. “But in the first in-
stance, we’re focused on what we think the
Ukrainians need for the current fight.”
Around 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads
belong to Russia and the U.S., and these arsenals
loom large as the Biden Administration seeks to
keep pressure on Putin to stop his military cam-
paign. The White House wants to maintain a
posture that can prevent or limit escalation. “So
long as the United States or our allies are not at-
tacked, we will not be directly engaged in this
confict, either by sending American troops to
fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces.
We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to
strike beyond its borders. We do not want to pro-
long the war just to infict pain on Russia,” Biden
wrote in a New York Times op-ed, explaining his
decision to send the HIMARS rockets.
It remains unclear what repercussions
Ukraine faces if it uses HIMARS to strike Russia
either accidentally or on purpose. It will take
around three weeks for the U.S. to train the
Ukrainians on the rocket systems, which will
double the range of Ukraine’s artillery from the
current 20 miles with the U.S.- provided M
howitzers. The additional range will be key
in the Donbas, where the war has become an
artillery duel with the two nations exchanging
fire each day. But the decisive factor, Washington
believes, lies not with any single weapons
platform. “It’s a grinding confict,” Kahl said.
“No system is going to turn the war. This is a
battle of national will.” □PresidenT Joe Biden’s decision June 1 To
provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems
that can strike targets from dozens of miles away
gives Kyiv a new, much-needed advantage in
its hard-fought war with Russia. After months
of imploring the U.S. to send long-range mis-
siles, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the
Ukrainian military will soon have a weapon with
roughly twice the range of the current artillery
pieces they are using to fight the better-armed
Russian troops that have invaded the eastern
part of their country.
Moscow noticed. Speaking with reporters
after the announcement, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov accused the U.S. of dangerously
escalating the war, not only raising the specter
of increased fighting in the nation, but also po-
tentially spreading it beyond Ukraine’s borders.
“The U.S. is deliberately and diligently pouring
oil on the fire,” Peskov said.
In fact, the decision to provide four U.S.-
made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems
(HIMARS) was debated for weeks before Biden
felt comfortable sending the weapons, Admin-
istration officials say. Even then, the President
wanted multiple assurances from Ukraine, in-
THE BRIEF NEWS
‘We’re
focused on
what we
think the
Ukrainians
need for
the current
fight.’
—COLIN KAHL,
DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE MOSA’AB ELSHAMY—APThe HIMARS rocket
system in use during
multinational
exercises in Morocco
on June 9, 2021