Even though it is clearer than ever that Ukraine has no chance of winning, the U.S. is determined to funnel every last weapon from the U.S. arsenal and penny from the U.S. Treasury into the bank accounts of Volodymyr Zelensky and his buddies as they continue funneling Ukrainian young people into the meat grinder of war.
According to reports, Washington is "close" to approving the shipment of long-range missiles to Kiev even though Moscow has repeatedly warned that this is a red line that shall not be crossed, or else.
Officials who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity told Reuters that JASSMs can be easily integrated into the U.S.-designed F-16 fighter jets that the West has been sending over to Ukraine as of late.
News about all this was not supposed to go public for another couple of months, but the media dropped the news after anonymous officials decided to spill the beans early despite ongoing discussions and negotiations.
The actual delivery of the weapons, should this all be approved, is still "several months" away, according to the officials. U.S. authorities still need to establish all of the technical details associated with delivery.
(Related: Remember when Ukraine accused Russia of bombing that children's hospital in Kiev? Turns out Ukraine did it.)
Ukraine burning through the West's weapons arsenals
Developed by military contractor Lockheed Martin, JASSMs could, assuming Ukraine uses them correctly, be used for strikes up to 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) inside the Russian border.
There is also a version that could reach 500 km (about 311 miles) or further into Russia, but it is unclear which version the U.S. is planning to send.
Some reports are suggesting that certain modification could be made to allow for JASSMs to be installed on non-Western fighter jets, seeing as how Ukraine's inventory of F-16s is low right now due to friendly fire accidents and because only the first batch of F-16s promised to Ukraine has thus far been delivered.
The situation is a mess right now as Ukraine is currently receiving weapons from all sorts of Western countries that have different restrictions on how those weapons are to be used. Some of Ukraine's sponsors have given Zelensky the green light to strike "legitimate" targets inside Russian territory with their weapons while the U.S. has only authorized Ukraine to use its weapons in cross-border attacks, not for "deep strikes" into Russia.
Kiev has repeatedly complained about the restrictions as it begs its Western sponsors to allow for deep strikes into Russian territory using all the weapons it receives.
Moscow is saying no way to all of this. Should the U.S. tell Kiev to go ahead and violate this red line, then Russia is planning to supply similar weapons to its allied enemies of the West in retaliation.
Moscow's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told U.S. authorities this week that they "will not be able to sit it out across the ocean" while lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weaponry inside Russian territory. All Western-supplied equipment will be subsequently destroyed, Antonov threatened.
"The Russians should inform the Americans that they will be arming the Iranians, Syrians and the Houthis with long-range missiles should they give the okay for the Ukrainians to use American long-range weapons in Russia," is how one commenter put it about the implications of this serious escalation.
"Collapsing empires tend to be vicious," wrote another. "Why would the U.S. be different?"
When will the Russia-Ukraine war finally end? Find out more at WWIII.news.
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