Russia No Longer Acknowledges Acts of War
Paul Craig Roberts
Putin initiated the Russian policy of not acknowledging acts of war when he defined the attack on Russia’s strategic bomber force as an “act of terrorism” in order to evade his responsibility to respond.
Anticipating Washington’s delivery of nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, the Kremlin has defined their use against Russia as “terrorist attacks aimed at escalating the conflict.” In other words, Putin has cancelled his warning that the use of Tomahawks against Russia means the supplier of the missiles and targeting information are cobelligerents subject to Russian military response. https://www.rt.com/russia/626489-zakharova-tomahawk-terrorist-attacks/ [1]
If non-enforcement of all of Russia’s “red lines” has not already convinced Washington that there would be no Russian response to the deployment of Tomahawks, the statement yesterday by the Russian Foreign Ministry will remove any hesitation in Washington by the the Foreign Ministry’s cancellation of the cobelligerent threat.
As was completely obvious from the beginning, by attempting to limit the conflict and to make it seem non-threatening to the West, Putin’s never-ending war has greatly widened it, turning it into the war with the West that Putin did not want.
Having permitted Washington to overthrow the Russian-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014, having clung to his delusion of the Minsk Agreement for 8 years while the West built and equipped a large Ukrainian army prepared to attack the Donbas breakaway republics, having been cold-shouldered in response to his plea for a mutual security agreement, Putin in February 2022 had waited far too long and had no alternative to intervening in Ukraine. Unfortunately, Putin lacked the strategic judgment to quickly defeat Ukraine before the West could become a cobelligrent. Now the war is on the verge of spiraling out of control with Trump talking about Ukraine going on the offensive.
There seems in Russia to be no understanding of the situation and of their enemy. Consequently, war is inevitable.