WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden’s administration will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a significant change to Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

The move by the United States two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 follows months of requests by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine’s military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.

The change follows Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv.

The first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.

    • ouch@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Bad news mate. WW3 already started a while ago. The world is essentially in a proxy war against Russia.

      • DictatrshipOfTheseus@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        If you include the global south (which obviously you should), most of the world sides with Russia. I’d agree with you that unless things really take a turn towards deescalation, which is laughably unlikely, history will look back at this time as WWIII having already begun. But it’s a lot more complicated than just a proxy war against Russia. It’s a proxy war the Western Imperialists via NATO but under the hegemonic control of the US in particular, is waging against the rising challengers of that hegemony. And primary among those is China, which is why we have the constant and unrelenting sinophobia and anti-China propaganda. It’s just that Russia has just been the first and boldest to actually use military force against the encroachment of western imperialist ambitions, but Iran is being forced into taking action now too. Also Hezbollah and Anserallah of course, but I mean among those that are fully recognized as state actors.

        But no, if this does shape up to truly be WWIII, then the line is not between Russia and the world. The lines are between Western Imperialists and Multipolarists.

        • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          If you include the global south […], most of the world sides with Russia.

          I don’t know if the global south really sides with anyone so much as watching from the sidelines. Not honoring sanctions isn’t the same as actively fighting.

          It’s a proxy war the Western Imperialists via NATO but under the hegemonic control of the US in particular, is waging against the rising challengers of that hegemony.

          i.e. Eastern Imperialists - let’s call them by what they are. This isn’t some noble quest to liberate countries from US control. It’s a maneuver to secure more power in the space before the red line of nuclear deterrence.

          This isn’t freedom vs. imperialism, it’s just imperialism. The People’s Republic China has always been its own hegemony. Russia lost much of its sphere of influence during the collapse of the USSR, but it has made a solid effort to reclaim it since, e.g. with Belarus, Chechenya, Georgia and now Ukraine.

          Neither the US “interventions” in the Middle East nor Israel’s “Operation Swords of Iron” against Palestine nor Russian “special operations” nor (PR)China’s claim to Taiwan (ROC) nor all the other power grabs I won’t bother listing (or don’t even know about) are anything but imperialist ambitions. There are no saints among the leaders in this global standoff.

          But ultimately, it’s the people that pay the price in all of these conflicts. Human suffering, oppression, exploitation transcends all borders. We may have different leaders, different cultures, different experiences of life, but we’re united in the fact that we both will be the victims of this.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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            4 days ago

            That’s the whole problem with trying to break down geopolitics into set polarized factions. It makes annotating history a bit easier, but it completely forgoes any nuance.

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              4 days ago

              I think a lot of people on Lemmy do it for emotional reasons, too. They can’t handle a grey-on-grey world, they need it to be black and white.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          There needs to be a word for the cultivated delusion shared by the terminally online.

    • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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      Actually, leading with the electrical attacks is the wrong way to remind you how insane you are, since no amount of damage to Ukraine will cause you to flinch. You seem like the type who would only flinch at a strategic nuclear exchange. You probably haven’t noticed that Russia has promised to apply more pressure in the Middle East/West Asia region against US forces. You cannot just take potshots at them from a safe distance, US forces are deployed in a global occupation!

      • hitwright@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Oh boy, I’ve heard this one. Gloves are taken off, eyebrows are being raised, amirite? xD

          • hitwright@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            You mean the chimp outs? When something bad happens, they send a bunch of missiles to terrorize civilians. It’s not a win you think it is.

            Also how do you think robovatnik is doing?

            • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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              3 days ago

              You can pretend to know what is going on, but I know all you have is mocking individual soldiers being maimed and killed. I am nothing like you. I do not even enjoy watching power go out for the Ukrainians. They have all been deceived. Anyways, say goodbye.

    • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      Let’s see how you feel about this when, like after the Kerch bridge bombing, Russia resumes attacking electrical infrastructure. You had a little grace period there you know. Well, you don’t know anything actually.

  • badelf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    It’s only for four months. Putin doesn’t mind how many Russians will die until Trump gets in and tells Ukraine to surrender his buddy.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 days ago

      What is the point of drafted Ukrainians dying for the next four months? You already accept Ukraine will inevitably surrender.

    • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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      If Putin doesn’t care how many Ukrainians die, why is he even averse to hitting their rail lines and electrical infrastructure? They clearly save these attacks for retaliation when negotiations fall through yet again and the bellicose US statements get out of hand yet again.

      The whole mystification of Iran and Russia’s clear strategy of “fuck off so we can stabilize and develop” that inevitably results in risks to our own stability is too funny. Western orientalism is strong in 2024 as it was in 2001.

      Russia doesn’t benefit from destabilized hostile states on its border. What about that is so hard for liberals to understand? Putin and the oligarchs literally wanted to loot their country and sell shit to the west and you idiots have driven them to China. I should thank you, but you didn’t have any say in the matter.

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.org
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        Just wanna point out that in this initial reply to the comment tree, you did the exact same thing I just called you out on:
        Misrepresenting (or to not assume malice, misREADING) another comment to then spin your entire narrative around that error.
        They said:

        Putin doesn’t mind how many Russians will die

        You base your retort on:

        If Putin doesn’t care how many Ukrainians die

        “this already shows you are terrible at reading. How am I supposed to expect you to treat anything else I show you seriously when you cannot even read your own material?”

        • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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          You cannot be serious, this is a distinction without a difference. I can’t believe you’ve managed to find a way to fence sit between your own position and mine. Yes, to add to your inability to read, you seemingly intend to exhaust my energy by arguing about meaningless nonsense. You have the attitude of someone who does not value their time.

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.org
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        4 days ago

        Ah so putin is the good guy whos checks notes liberating the ukraine and totally reasonable in his target choices?

        • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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          Why exactly are you so convinced Russian leadership wants to massacre Ukraine and have a wasteland on the border? Ukraine was a vital trading partner for Russia prior to the western coup. Why do you think that the US and its allies fund a proxy war on Ukrainian territory? Out of the goodness of their hearts? They have been privatizing state assets in Ukraine, speculating on them, taking advantage of the spike in European requirement for US natural gas to replace Russia, and making huge military industrial purchases to replace what Russia destroys.

          I’m sure Russia will settle for a slowly steamrolled Ukraine as a second option if the terror attacks on Russian office buildings etcetera continue, they might not even stop at western Ukraine, it could go on for years. They have been willing at many points to freeze the conflict so that they can go on making some money with Ukraine. Like I said it took them ten years to come to the aid of Donbas while civilians were being bombed there (Ukrainian leadership openly bragged about making the eastern Ukrainians’ children stay in bomb shelters rather than school). The west chose the drawn out destruction of cities, the destruction of a dam for no good reason.

          • shapesandstuff@feddit.org
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            4 days ago

            surely you have a lot of irrefutable sources for your claims.
            It’s crazy how many people here are touting the widely disclaimed coup or genocide.
            Like surely there’s a lot of publicly accessible, independent data on all of that, right?
            Surely there’s a very good reason why Crimea was invaded in a cloak-and-dagger operation by unmarked soldiers while russia officially demented any accusations it’s their troops? Surely.

            • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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              4 days ago

              It’s 2024 and you are deepthroating the White House narrative. You trust the people who invaded Iraq because they said Al-Qaeda was there to tell you who “the bad guy” is.

              I will show you plenty of sources, including actual video of Ukrainian forces torturing and killing civilians that has been verified independently. But first I want a source for your claim that Russia is indiscriminately bombing civilians. I will show you how easy it is to verify that your sources are not independent, funded by western finance capital, and undermined by statements from think tanks which cater to higher brow audiences on “your side” aka the ruling class that knows you don’t know how to research and most of their population is functionally illiterate.

              I am well aware of what the headlines say. You don’t know your head from your ass without the Associated Press or the BBC weighing in on the subject.

              • shapesandstuff@feddit.org
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                4 days ago

                White House narrative

                Muricacentric much?

                But first I want a source for your claim that Russia is indiscriminately bombing civilians.

                Strawman, letsgooo.
                Besides your random made up arguments, here are some numbers on civilian casualties:
                https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293492/ukraine-war-casualties/

                There’s of course a bunch of civilian massacres still under active investigation, plus a lot of varying numbers between UA officials and independent reports. Mostly it’s just the precise numbers that are unclear, not the act itself. See:

                https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/f/a/515868.pdf https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/ukraine-deadly-mariupol-theatre-strike-a-clear-war-crime-by-russian-forces-new-investigation/ https://www.npr.org/2022/06/27/1107854331/russian-missile-strike-shopping-mall-kremenchuk

                But of course these are all western propaganda, please enlighten me with your credible sources full of irrefutable proof that i’m entirely consumed by fake news.

                • LukácsFan1917@lemmy.ml
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                  4 days ago

                  It’s not a strawman you just again said that “of course” there’s a bunch of civilian massacres under investigation. You literally just made the same argument you said was a strawman a sentence ago. Show your sources so we can expose your total intellectual dependence on spoon feeding from the media of the US and its allies.

                  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 35,160 civilian casualties during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as of July 31, 2024. Of them, 23,640 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher.

                  I already know of this. First of all this statistic is of the total reports of civilian deaths on both sides in the war, this already shows you are terrible at reading. How am I supposed to expect you to treat anything else I show you seriously when you cannot even read your own material? You can’t chalk up every single civilian death reported in the conflict to Russia, that is completely idiotic.

                  Second, they are taking Ukrainian government reports at face value. Prior to the war in Ukraine The Guardian and BBC and NYT all commented on how corrupt the Ukrainian state is, among the worst in the world.

                  Third, the UN human rights commission is headed by an EU guy, and is overall an institution which is controlled by the US and never intervenes in US imperialism. The US openly mocks UN officials it has problems with, like with the Iraq war, and uses its clout to prevent Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan politicians from accessing the UN without being arrested. The UN’s total abdication of responsibility as an international human rights institution and subservient reliance on the US and its allies has been put on full display by a year of genocide in Gaza.

                  https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/03/17/human-rights-ngo-hrw-amnesty-us-government/ Yes Amnesty has close ties to the White House. The global financial system, telecommunications, journalist and academia, it’s all very centralized with America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and to some extent wealth petromonarchies’ main cities Riyadh, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi

  • pelikan@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    The craziest thing of our time is that right-wing bigots claim to end the war fast with peace talks, while so-called “progressives” are going to prolong their proxy war as long as there is at least one Ukrainian still alive.

      • pelikan@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        You’re 100% correct here. My observation is based solely on Trump’s rhetoric and i also have heavy doubts that he will stop the war and bring peace to war-torn area. Anyway, if he really tries and succeeds, it would be twice more embarrassing for his predecessors, as it would mean that they could have done the same, but instead preferred to have tens of thousands Ukrainians killed and dozens of Ukrainian cities razed to the ground.

    • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      End the war fast by giving up land, and the people on that land. If you know anything about history Ukrainians under Russian rule is a completely unacceptable outcome to anyone but complete psychopaths.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        The peace proposal is for largely Russian speaking/ethnic regions of former Ukraine to stay Russian after their recent liberation.

      • isa41@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        Spoken like someone who clearly has zero knowledge of actual history. Especially considering a large part of the reason why the coup government in Ukraine began their campaign of ethnically cleansing the eastern population of their own country was because the people living there more strongly identified with Russia, wanted to be able to keep speaking Russian without persecution, and eventually pleaded with Russia to intervene on their behalf, which Russia fortunately did. But anyone who actually understands the history of the region is a “psychopath.” lol

        • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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          Spoken like someone who fell for russian propaganda hook line and sinker. You’re either a useful idiot or a bot yourself

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            4 days ago

            Can you explain which part is “Russian Propaganda?” The Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics are factually breakaway regions, which is the part you disagree with as “Propaganda?”

              • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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                There was plenty of organic separatism in much of Eastern Ukraine after Maidan. The support they received from Russia doesn’t invalidate that fact.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                Widespread support? Is The Washington Post Russian Propaganda? You keep digging further and further denying reality. Yes, of course Russia was going to support the pro-Russian breakaway regions, that can only benefit them, that doesn’t mean the breakaway regions weren’t pro-Russian since even before Russia’s direct involvement.

                Go ahead, keep accusing outlets like the Washington Post as Russian Propaganda and continue denying material reality.

        • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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          the people living there more strongly identified with Russia, wanted to be able to keep speaking Russian without persecution, and eventually pleaded with Russia to intervene on their behalf, which Russia fortunately did

          this is the first time I hear this story. the previous story was “cleaning out nazis” or something like that. it seems goalposts have grown wheels

  • vfreire85@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    they didn’t worked within ukraine, what makes them believe they’re gonna work within russia.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      One interesting explanation from Mohammed Mirandi was the establishment wants to escalate as much as possible to prevent Russia from accepting de escalation when Trump comes to power without major concessions from Ukraine.